Reverie

This Week's Edition of Musical Mondays: "Rêverie" by Claude Debussy


Happy Monday!

Mondays can be rather exciting, beckoning us to explore a long and beautifully new week. However, they can also be slightly intimidating: there is so much to be done! How will we ever meet all these deadlines?

That's why I've started Musical Mondays. Sometimes a song can help you make it through a week. It might inspire you while writing, or studying, or commuting to work. What song was the soundtrack of your Monday? Share your song in the comments section below.

Today, I'm sharing "Rêverie" by Claude Debussy. It inspired the following essay I wrote several weeks ago for my college writing class. The assignment: "Tell me about your favorite word, and why it is your favorite word. I don’t want you to explain it to me. Show me instead, by telling me a story." Enjoy!

 Reverie

Sometimes in the afternoon I find myself left all alone. Everyone has gone out; the rooms lie empty and silent. I switch on a piano recording and listen as the music fills the house, puncturing my solitude. I should be studying. I have my books piled in a neat stack on the floor. If I stand up, the stack reaches to my knees. Choosing a book, I flip it open and finger the pages. But my mind is elsewhere. My ears have caught the tune of the music, and the gentle voice of the piano washes over me.

It is a piece by Debussy – a piece so haunting that it distracts me from my schoolwork. Like a small child, I close my eyes and begin to dream. Long ago, I learned that I could dream while I was still awake. Although it is less real than a sleeping dream, it is perhaps more beautiful, for I can manipulate these dreams exactly as I wish. A friend once told me that they did not know how to daydream. I found this shocking -- I always thought that daydreaming was as natural as singing in the shower.

I am sure Debussy was dreaming when he wrote this piano piece. He named it “Reverie.” It is a French word, a synonym for daydream. Dissecting the etymology, I learn that it means a “wandering madman.” Perhaps that is a bit harsh, but I suppose that we who fall into these reveries have something of Don Quixote in us.

Where do I wander in my reverie? Does it matter? It is here alone that I have power over time: I can slip from memory to memory, lingering in the past. Or I can race to the future, imagining what it might be like, looking forward to things not yet written, or spoken, or touched, or seen. The piano piece ends and I am awakened from my thoughts. I must return to my work. Even now I can hear the sound of a car in the driveway: the family has returned. They will fill the house with noise. My reverie is over, leaving me to the busy reality of life. I smile. When we have such little time and so many things to do, I think it is our reveries that keep us all quite sane.

What's your song for Musical Monday? Share it in the comments section.

Posted by Nicole Bianchi at 2:20 PM