Opera Sauvage

I woke up this morning looking through my window, as I do every morning,, at the Bountiful East Bench and a wonderful sunrise.  A couple of white clouds were reflecting the sun's rays and I thought I would listen to Vangelis' Opera Sauvage .  It is a piece written for a French Documentary Series called L'Opera sauvage which was about the relationship between man, music and animals around the world. 

The opening track is perfect for waking up and is called Hymne.  It just brings you into the world peacefully and with sanctity.   Vangelis is an amazing musician.  I first became acquainted with his music when his music was used in a PBS documentary presented by the late Carl Sagan called Cosmos .The piece I fell in love with was Heaven and Hell Part I and I just melted when I heard the piece the first time.  I immediately went and bought the LP, yes vinyl, and still have it today.

One of my all time favorite Vangelis pieces is on this tape it is called L'enfant and again became first acquainted with it when it was played in a film called The Year of Living Dangerously starring a young Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, and an amazing performance by Linda Hunt who plays a male role.

As I listened to the rest of the tape I could imagine how the music was used in the series.  There is something about soundtrack music that evokes emotion.  I am sure that is the point that the composer plans on.  I use soundtrack music in my practice to assist clients to verbalize emotion.  There is one exercise that I created where put a piece of music and have them do a story as they are listening to the music.  This assists those clients that have difficulty with an emotional vocabulary try to put words or a narrative using that part of the brain that contains emotional recall.  The last track Flamants Rose is perfect for this. 

It has been a good day and I am enjoying listening to my music.