As the album’s title suggests, the songs on “Music For Imaginary Movies” are very good at evoking mental images. And they’re more than just mental images. They’re the kind of animated mental pictures that float through your head as you drift in and out of a light sleep. The images that cross your mind when you’re on the bus, and you zone out for a while.
But it’s not just the music that is evocative. The song titles themselves are sometimes enough to spark your imagination. Magician’s Assistant…The Way of the Dodo…The Day Nothing Happened. If those were real movies, I’d go see them in a second.
Of all the tracks, however, no imaginary movie is as intriguing as “Yeti’s Lament”. I can picture it now: our abominable furry friend trudges through the snow, pondering the meaning of his existence, lamenting the loss of…whatever a yeti might lose.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The opening clarinet. Mental image: the yeti looks at an old photograph and lets out a snowy sigh.
2. The turntable scratches at 0:53. Mental image: a panicky mosquito gets trapped in the yeti’s fur.
3. The way the two clarinets harmonize from 2:05 to 2:16. Mental image: the yeti frees the mosquito from his tangled fur, and realizes that he can make a difference in the world, no matter how small.
Recommended listening activity:
Drawing your dreams.