If you’re looking for a fix for the fall weather, might I suggest lighting a few candles and putting on Shirley Horn’s magnificent ‘Here’s to Life’ album, which formed the soundtrack to many a fall season in my long/short life. This song, ‘Quietly There’, is a pretty good indication of the languid but inspired delivery of Ms. Horn and the luscious string arrangements by Johnny Mandel that weave their gorgeous way through that entire album.
A bit of an ambivalent love song, this is sparse of words, but oh what such wicked economy can conjure when coupled with a dramatic imagination. There is just enough here to tell your own specific story, or create something for someone else to live out.
This post comes later in the day, after the sun has gone down, as the music is a little too deliciously moody for anything as vulgar as daylight. Dusk comes quickly now. These are bewitching hours, made more-so by music like this.
I light this candle and watch it throw…
