Music Is Life

Music is one of the first senses we humans respond to.  Tiny toddlers dance, clap and sing to the music before they can even talk or walk.  Music is also the last sense to leave us when we are dying.

In the last few days of Steve's life, his daughter Rachelle got his iPhone working again and set  up a giant playlist of all the classical music he had on his iTunes.  Though fading in and out of consciousness, Steve would raise a hand and conduct the orchestra, as was his way all his life.  Sometimes he could get quite animated!  I thought he may have missed his calling.

We both love the music of Erik Satie, and I added it to the playlist.  It was exquisitely beautiful and heartbreaking to listen to.  His music was used on the soundtrack to the fabulous documentary, Man on Wire.  If you haven't seen it, you must.


Satie was an influential artist in the late 19th- and early 20th-century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd. Steve would cry listening to this music. The full album of songs is called Gymnopedies and the music was first heard in 1887 in Paris. Steve's love affair with Paris was life-long, and he passed that passion on to me. He was exceptionally knowledgeable about classical music and perhaps his love of it was second only to his love of photography. But the music came first. Frequently going to live performances of the Cleveland Orchestra when he was younger. Check out Satie if you don't know his work. I think it's brilliant, and certainly very moving.