under the weather is the term for it.. yes.. i am currently very under the weather.. no flu here.. dont have the common symptoms of a sore throat and dry cough.. but i do have a runny nose.. and am prone to sneeze attacks for no good reason other than fickle changes in the weather.. i am enjoying this feeling very much because its not often i feel weak and pathetic.. so im really revelling in this one..

if you're in need for some melancholy with an operatic twist.. try out henryk gorecki's 3rd symphony: symphony of sorrowful songs.. well the title pretty much says everything.. my friend introduced it to me today and insisted that i listen to it that very moment.. i was sceptical but after sampling the whole album.. i stand convinced.. yes it is classical.. but apparently this particular album made it to the british top 40.. not only the classical charts.. the MAINSTREAM charts.. so you can see this is no ordinary piece of orchestra music here.. its been dubbed 'one of the most remarkable fifty-four minutes of music you are likely to hear'.. amazing considering i hadn't heard of it till today.. and assuming the majority of you out there haven't either.. i decided to give it a little plug.. call it cultural enlightenment why don't you..

a bit of background information on the symphony.. it is made up of 3 pieces of music and is scored for an orchestra sung by a soprano.. the first movement's lyrics are from a 15th century Polish poem known as the Lamentation of the Holy Cross where the Mother of Christ begs her dying son to speak.. the 2nd movement's lyrics are from a message found scrawled on a Gestapo prison cell wall in 1944 by an 18 year old girl named Helena Wanda Blazusiakówna.. this is by far the most engaging aspect of the whole concept to me.. as it was this perculiar morbid fact that lured me to try this piece of music in the first place.. the 3rd movement's lyrics are from a folk song in the dialect of the Opole region of Poland in which, as with the first song, a mother mourns the loss of her son in which she assumes he has died at the hands of the enemy during an uprising.. all 3 songs feature a common theme of loss relating to a mother and her child.. by the way.. the singing for the 1st movement doesnt start till the 13th minute so you gotta be patient.. that said.. hope you try it out!..

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