Because of a somewhat late night, I decided to sleep in a bit and run on the treadmill this morning.
After the usual coffee and a few rubs of my bleary eyes, I got on and started playing with the incline right away. It was the only way to wake me up.
I decided to hear the series The Story of Classical on Apple Music Classical. I choose Part V: Early 20th Century.
The first one hour (in each of the nine parts) is a commentary explaining the context of the period narrated by Guy Jones. The story begins with the music of Igor Stravinsky and in particular his work The Rite of Spring. Here is a wonderful article on the work from the British Library calling its premiere ‘one of the most famous scandals in the history of the performing arts’.
I continue to play with the incline dial as I hear the commentary on Stravinsky, Debussy, Schoenberg, Ravel, Copland and more. It’s a lot to fit in an hour and a lot to absorb – for me certainly – and especially on the treadmill.
Or does that make it easier? That I can run and that I can listen without the other ordinary distractions of everyday modern life. But surely, I can listen to this – and any music – with more care and attention while not running?
Like at a performance.
I think these thoughts, while running, and while missing out on sentences and information that is streaming in my ears. I don’t know about others but I find it impossible not to let my thoughts wander once a while during a performance or a movie. What is absolute attention?
Perhaps I have felt it the most – and that too only symbolic in recognizing that it is in retrospect – during the final kilometres of the Bombay Marathon this year. When I just had to finish. When I was just a few kilometres away. Then just two. Then one. That burst of want and desire and need to just finish within a time limit, keeping a certain pace, I don’t think I have ever concentrated so hard.
But here I was, playing with the incline once a while, listening to a bit of this and a bit of that, careful to run at the same speed and to not lose patience.
The commentary ended a few minutes before the run. It was enough information for today.
Writing about Running 