"A ditty of summer's gone; in the afternoon"

There are many things that make the hairs on my arms or the back of my neck stand up; in a good way I hasten to add (I've moved on from my previous post about horror books).

Watching my children performing in their school plays, for example, or listening to them read a difficult word for the first time.

A sad film can catch me off guard.

For some reason, seeing incredibly distant aeroplanes flying way, way up high, the one's with no inention of landing on UK soil and most certainly haven't taken off from UK soil either. You know the one's where you can barely see the plane itself but the vapour trail gives it away? (4 trails, it's a Jumbo, 2 trails, who knows or cares what it is, it ain't stopping!!)

I can feel choked when one of the school kids with whom I work sudddenly seems to turn a corner and grasps whatever it is that I've spent the past half hour trying to get him or her to grasp, it's written in their face that they've got it!!

They are all poignant moments.

They are brief but powerful.

Most frequently however, it is music that sends shivers down my spine. No particular genre; could be a classical piece, could be a melody in a pop song or it can be a repetitive, thumping dance tune that makes me stop what I'm doing and reach for the volume control.

It's been nearly 9 months that I wrote about buying a piano (read here). Our busy lives got in the way but I am back on track, thanks in part to a piece of music I heard yesterday and I literally have not been able to get the tune out of my head.

It helps that the music was used against an amateur animator's (here he goes again with the alliteration) short film, which itself was incredibly moving, but for me, it's the fact that it is the beautiful sound of a perfectly played piano that has wedged it so clearly in my head, possibly permanently.

The composers name is Yann Tiersen (isn't the internet wonderful?), and if you are familiar with the beautiful film Amélie, you may recognise the music from that.

The music is entitled "Comptine d'un autre été: l'après midi" and in the animation, an old man shares his life story with his grandson.

If you watch the whole thing without getting a lump in your throat, well .... you're made of stone.

Click HERE to watch and make sure you watch it Full Screen.

I will post Joseph's reaction to the film when you have had time to let the music sink in.