200 Year-old Sunshine
Is the rainy season starting to get you down? Have
you had enough 'grey' in your life? Well cry no more, because DR Bull
has a cure for you! (No, no, not 'Doctor' Bull ... My name is David
Roy Bull ... DR Bull!)
My prescription for the 'rainy day blues' is very
simple. Take a good dose of 200 year old sunshine! Here's how you do
it. First, go to a record shop and pick up a disc of the Mozart Flute
Quartets. My favourite is the William Bennett recording, but it
doesn't really matter which flutist you choose; it's Mozart we want
to hear. Then, when you get home, prepare a clear space on your
tatami, get a little pillow if you wish, put on comfortable
headphones, start the A Major Quartet, and lie back and relax.
Instant sunshine!
This is just about the most gloriously happy music
ever written - guaranteed to clear any grey skies ... I don't know
much about Mozart's life at the time he wrote these pieces, whether
he was happy or sad, contented or troubled. I don't really want to
know. I only know what he left behind for us, a legacy that can make
us laugh or cry, that speaks directly to our hearts from so long ago
in the past, and that will live as long as humans exist.
Don't laugh at me when I tell you this, but I have
cried while listening to this magical music. A bunch of little black
dots scribbled on a piece of paper more than two hundred years ago!
What magic is this, that such things have the power to move us
so?
As I write these words even now, although I don't
even have the stereo turned on, this music is filling my head again,
bringing a wonderful feeling of life.
Rain? What's that?