Mozart forever...

Let's go back to the summer of 67. Cityboy is still working at the Post Office; he has no social life to speak of---some good reading during that time---The Fixer by Malamud, 36 Children by Herb Kohl, and When She Was Good, by Philip Roth. But cityboy is fascinated by Mozart. He takes endless records of the composer's chamber music, symphonies, piano concertos and operas out from the Lincoln Center Library.  Mozart, in fact has become his friend, during this time of barren relationships. He listens "hard" hoping to connect the musical ideas of one piece to another. He looks for quotes from the operas he has become fascinated by: The Marriage of Figaro; Don Giovanni, Cosi Fan Tutti and the Magic Flute, in the concertos, chamber music, etc. Above all, he feels alone, and the music and its meaning helps define him during this time. It is a time of transition---of some new friends, Fred, a young scene designer also with a great love of classical music (especially opera) with whom he discusses musical ideas endlessly. He listens to two, three versions of the operas,  looking for different approaches to the material. No women---and he is acutely aware of this. The woman whom he was most interested in when he was a senior at Hopkins--- three years earlier--she was a freshman at Goucher then---has just sent him a letter which rejects him furiously.  So it is time to begin again. In a few months he will leave the monotonous job at the Post Office and rejoin the "real" world,  by obtaining a job with a social work organization called Riverdale Children's Association. It handles black foster homes and the children who live there. It's office, believe it or not, is at 12 east 79 street, a strange place for mostly people of color to visit who live in Brooklyn or Queens. But there it is. It is three years after he graduated from Hopkins, hoping for a "major career in the American theater" but all that has changed. He still wants to prove himself but "real life' means getting a day job, one that interests him and having the nights to go out and explore
  This passage was provoked simply by listening to one of Mozart's String Quartets---K 458, and experiencing it deeply. The music brought back all these memories of the strangeness and the sadness of that time. The Governor has just announced that social distancing will be in place, for the next few
weeks. Cityboy expected to react with anger, but instead feels relaxed--maybe now he can have some vision for how to live in these few weeks.. Maybe it is time renew his fascination for Mozart--look
at a lot of his chamber music, piano concertos, etc. Time seems to have opened up before him---time
to be spent mostly in his small apartment---but nevertheless there are things that he can gain from that.
So that is where we stand now.  I don't really want to end, but this should do it. Will report again soon.