Other participants also shared symbols through music:
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto:
When I was on [home] dialysis, my husband always used to put Tchaikovsky’s first violin concerto on when he was cleaning out the dialysis machine….I cannot hear that violin concerto to this day without being taken back, sitting on the chair being hooked up with needles in dialysis…When I hear that piece of music I think: dialysis. Fascinating isn’t it because, the connection is very, very strong, even after all these years.
Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – “Choral” (Finale)
I was told that I had terminal cancer. I asked the doctor what his prognosis would be in terms of my life expectancy, and he said, “Well maybe a year….” So I came home and I burst into tears. I cried quite heavily because I was suddenly facing the issue of my own death – the reality of my own death….But then one day, I was listening to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and suddenly I felt I broke through, I broke through the fear. The fear lifted just like clouds lifting. It was during the choral and I felt that my fear of dying was disappearing as I sat there, in seconds, this pall was lifting away from me. From that day on I haven’t had any fear at all.