Rossini in the morning

Today's earworm: "Voga, o Tonio benedeto," the ninth song in Gioachino Rossini's collection, Les soirées musicales (also called La Regatta Veneziana). It's a sprightly duet for women's voices. Funny thing is, I haven't sung this since I was probably 17 years old! Another day, another random earworm. Or so I thought...

I received an email this morning announcing the upcoming programs of the JP Concerts. To be honest, I didn't even read the email in its entirety. I glanced at it quickly (and I mean, QUICKLY), knowing I would visit the website later. I went off to work and, while I was walking to my office, I noticed I was humming the opening of Rossini's duet. I was stunned! I couldn't imagine how this tune could've seeped into my brain twenty years after I'd last sung it! I made a mental note to write another blog post. Then, while eating my (omg, so delicious) clam chowder, I had a chance to visit the JP Concerts website. Sure enough, listed at the bottom of the main page I spotted, "Soiree Musicale avec Duo saxophone et piano." Granted, this program didn't appear to include Rossini, but nevertheless, my brain decided to run with making the connection between soirées musicales and La Regatta Veneziana, and finally to Voga, o Tonio benedeto. Remarkable.

Now, back to my chowder (to which, due to the loveliness of Harvard Business School's catering company, I was given the option to add more clams as well as lobster)...

Today's earworm:

I've developed a habit. I have begun tweeting and Facebooking whatever music is running through my brain. You see, I almost always have a snippet of a piece of music playing in my head while I wend my way through my days. Right now, for example, "By Strauss" (George Gershwin) is swinging away in three-quarter time in my brain. Earlier today it was "The Wild Colonial Boy," which is an Irish ballad of sorts. My particular soundtrack version was the drunken one from The Quiet Man –– a charming movie from 1952 starring Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne. "By Strauss" makes sense, as I'll be performing it next month, but the ballad is completely random...or so it seems. The beauty of the subconscious is that it continues to 'hear' things long after our ears have moved onto other sounds and snippets. Who knows where I picked up my little Irish ditty??

This annoying trait isn't really new to me. I have suffered from this affliction my entire life. As an adult, I've learned to keep the music to myself, that is, until I started to tweet and status update it... As a child I would hum or do-do-do whatever tune was in my brain. My parents were kind enough not to hush me, as much as they might have wanted to...they let me sing and toodle away. I recall even singing myself to sleep almost every night. Singing calmed me and helped me focus. And it still does today.

While Wikipedia isn't a viable option for writing research papers, it's certainly handy for quickly learning about things like earworms or poutine*. Earlier today I was intrigued to read what Wiki has to say about the pesky earworm: "In a 2006 book by Daniel Levitin entitled This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, he states that research has shown musicians and people with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) are more likely to suffer from earworm attacks." Who knew?! 

*Google it. Yum.