When you met your significant other, did you have “a song,” that reminded you of each other? Maybe it was the music that you were both drawn to, or perhaps the text was especially meaningful.

In the case of Carl Crosier and myself, ‘our song’ was the famed Albinoni (sic) “Adagio,” which we listened to over and over again while we were courting.

Here is a recording of this piece recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The power of ‘our song’, the musical glue that binds lovers and friends across the ages.

Ame Baird and Bill Thompson wrote: Many couples have a special song – “our song” – that reminds them of a significant event or time in their relationship, like when they first met, their wedding or when they were separated by war.

These songs are a powerful way of reconnecting with their shared personal memories and the emotions that go with them. They are a type of shared or autobiographical memory triggered by music; they work as a “mental glue” for a couple’s shared identity.

Despite how common these songs are, there is surprisingly limited research on music-evoked autobiographical memories. There are, however, numerous anecdotal and film references to the power of “our songs” to bring people back to themselves and to reconnect with others, particularly in dementia.

To this day, I can’t hear the Albinoni (sic) “Adagio” without remembering Carl and the love we shared for 37 years. And the last time I heard it played was at Carl’s funeral (September 2014) when I requested Darel Stark play it with organist John Renke.

This Monday night at the Organ Plus concert, I will be playing it with Darel myself. It’s the only non-Baroque work in a concert of Bach, Krebs, Marcello, Monteverdi and Albinoni. 

Huh? Albinoni is not Baroque? Well actually he is, but did you see that I used the word “sic” after Albinoni? When you use “sic” in brackets, it means that the preceding word is erroneous, or odd in some way. 

The “Adagio” is commonly attributed to the 18th-century Venetian master, Tomaso Albinoni, but was actually composed by 20th-century musicologist and Albinoni biographer, Remo Giazotto. Supposedly Giazotto based the “Adagio” on the discovery of a manuscript fragment of Albinoni, but others believe it was a complete musical hoax. According to Wikipedia, “there is no doubt about Giazotto’s authorship of the remainder of the work.” 

This music has been used in many movies, including Orson Welles’ film adaption of Franz Kafka’s The Trial, the original 1975 version of Rollerball, in the 1980 film Fame, in the 1981 TV movie Murder in Texas, in the 1981 Dragonslayer, and many, many more. It was even used as funeral music in The Sopranos and in a television episode of Malcolm in the Middle.

It’s still “our song,” and I hope you like Darel’s and my interpretation of it at Monday’s concert. The rest of the concert will contain organ duets, organ with recorder, organ with trombone, organ with oboe and organ with violin, in addition to two trios.

Where: Lutheran Church of Honolulu, 1730 Punahou Street
Time: 6:30 pm refreshments in the courtyard, 7:00 concert in the church
Free; donations welcomed