Scene: In the car on the drive to school. KWAX has begun playing a cello Prelude and Gavotte by a Russian Composer who isn't Tchaikovsky or Shostakovitch or Stravinsky.
Me: "Oh dear. Is this 'Someone's Dead' music, or 'Someone's Dying' music?
TC: "Mark calls this 'Dying Swan' music."
Me: "Oh, we're in a cave, or a cellar. And it's dark, but it doesn't matter, because everything's meaningless. (music changes to major chord) "Oh! Oh, wait! The swan's feeling better."
TC: "'I'm not dead yet!' (music reverts to original gloomy chord) Oh, there's been a relapse. 'I want to go for a walk! / You're not fooling anyone.'"
Me: "Oh man, this is like Reed College Sophomore Love."
TC: "Was Love at Reed really that bad?"
Me (thinks back to The Freshman Mistake and the Mandatory Sophomore Crisis and...) "Sch-yeah...."
(Prelude finishes; the second movement, a gavotte, begins)
TC: "Oh! It's Happy Dying Swan Music now."
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