Year of Wonder April/May Check-in

Due to life, things happened and I was a bit lax about my listening. Basically, instead of a very intense, active listening session, I started listening in the background while doing other things. Or sometimes even not listening at all until there was a backlog and then listening to everything at once!

The music is still beautiful.

April brought a ton music that was just incredible. I thought about listing my favorites, but that would be listing basically every piece! It was that good of a month. Some to take note of:

1. Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland - The first time I heard this, I thought for sure it was the opening to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It's not, but the two are quite similar. 
2. Overture from Tannhäuser by Richard Wagner - His music speaks to me in a way not all music does. 
3. April 27 - Prelude in G flat major, Op. 11 no. 13 by Alexander Scriabin - noting this because I know for a fact that I played this piece in the summer between high school and college.
4. April 29 - String Quartet with Didjeridu, no. 14 by Peter Sculthorpe - A didgeridoo is an Australian instrument. This was a really cool piece because the composer brought in traditional Indiginous Australian music into his composition. It was such an interesting sound that I'd never heard in classical music!

Honestly, I wanted to list all of April. This was such amazing music!

Onto May. May opened up with a movement from Debussy's Children's Corner Suite. The first movement is called Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum. I switched piano teachers my freshman year of high school. My new teacher assigned Dr. Gradus to me. Three and a half years later, I used that piece as part of my college auditions. Five years after that, my high school piano teacher played Dr. Gradus as my husband and I recessed down the aisle from our wedding. This piece is one of those bits of music that is just part of my identity and belongs on my life's soundtrack! 

The rest of May has been just as wonderful. There's another piano piece I played, this time Notturno by Grieg. There's a fair number of women composers for the month of May which was really lovely to listen to. Again, just stunning music. I'd list my favorites but it'd be 95% of the songs I listened to this month.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Title: Wuthering Heights

Author: Emily Bronte

Pages: 418

Finished: May 20, 2019

First Sentence: 1801 - I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.

Summary: A man named Lockwood lets the old house at Thrushcross Grange. He meets his neighbor at Wuthering Heights, a dour man named Heathcliff. The state of the household at the Heights is a curious one, and Lockwood asks that his housekeeper relate the story of Wuthering Heights. What follows is a story of love and a story of revenge as we learn how Heathcliff, an orphan, became the owner of Wuthering Heights.

Thoughts: UGH! A bit of backstory. I read this book in high school for the first time. I felt apathetic to it. Since then, I've read it at least three more times, and I've disliked it every time. Why do I keep reading it? Why did I put it on my Classics Club list? What on earth possessed me to read this again?

This book is the single book on my "I HATE this book" list that multiple people talk about as one of their favorite books. And every time, I think, "Huh. I must have missed something. Let me try again." Every time, I find myself thinking it was a bad idea.

I added it to my classics club list because I had an Anne Bronte and a Charlotte Bronte book on my list. I figured it'd be good to round out the sisters with Emily Bronte and give this book a last chance.

I made it through the book, but I can't say it was a pleasant experience. Every single character is unlikable. Cathy the elder is selfish and mean. Heathcliff is an abuser. Edgar Linton is just useless. Isabella is a brat. The younger generation is just as bad. Nelly Dean takes goes between having agency and then having no agency. Any redeeming quality was overshadowed by their other deeds.

And the abuse from Heathcliff - I don't like to use the word triggered often because I think people use it incorrectly. It's become a buzzword. But believe me when I say I was triggered by Heathcliff. He's absolutely horrific. He's abusive to the woman he supposedly loves. He's abusive to his wife. He's abusive to his child and his nephew and... I kept having to put the book down and walk away because his actions were just so despicable. And his mental abuse... that was honestly the worst part.

This book counted for three things: an item on my classics club list, a classic tragedy for Back to the Classics, and my spin book for the classics club spin # 20.

I can safely say this is the last time I will ever read this book.