Stuck in the perpetual motion

O believe, you were not born in vain!
You have not lived or suffered in vain!

All that is created must perish.
All that has perished rises again.
Cease trembling!
Prepare to live!

O Pain, all-pervading,
I have escaped from you!
O Death, all-conquering,
now you are conquered!

That's from Gustav Mahler's Symphony No.2 "Resurrection." Originally, I had to listen to it for my music history class. By some chance of fate, I managed to avoid ever hearing it before then. The version I own now is the 1975 performance, conducted by Zubin Mehta.

When I first heard that section of the fifth movement (all in German of course), I nearly cried. It was as a result of having listened to the entire thing; because I understood what it meant to be saying those words.

It's a fairly longish piece; between 80 to 90 minutes. It's a pretty wild ride that is fairly exhausting to listen to it in its entirety. I think that it makes the listener feel, in some sections, as if they are going through hell with him. It's contains a very fiery and violent nature at times; yet it is hauntingly beautiful at other times.

I don't remember precisely the storyline behind all of the movements, but I do remember the basic points that struck me with particular force that one day. It's starts out with a funeral. And then, about halfway through, the music represents a loss of way, a loss of faith in the world around oneself.

At the end, not only are we reconfirmed, but we're told that it's going to be okay. That's the section that I posted up above. I just remember getting to that section and breathing a sigh of relief, thinking to myself that "it's okay." There is a point to it all.

Most of it's pretty harrowing stuff. The whole time that I was listening to it, I was thinking that I understood the feelings that were being conveyed to me. But now, now that I have really lost my way? It means more now.

So what of the title of today's post then? Let me just put it this way--my brain tends to work on a couple of different levels at one time. During most of the afternoon today, I had two songs in my head. I had the '"Oh glaube, mein Herz, oh glaube": Etwas bewegter' section of the fifth movement of symphony no. 2 in my head (specifically starting about 1 min and 40 seconds or so into the Mehta version-#9); and I had song "When Yer 22" by The Flaming Lips stuck in my head.

That may seem like a strange combination to have stuck in one's head. I guess that the raw energy displayed in both songs makes up for the strangeness of having them both in my head simultaneously.

That and the lyrics. Look at the lyrics for both songs- When Yer 22 and Mahler's Resurrection. On some strange level, they jive.

Eh, it's all shiny.