The piece of music I chose for this week is Lux Aeterna from the movie Requiem for a Dream. The piece embodies the spirit of desperation and hopelessness, the revolving theme in the movie itself, which tells the story of drug addicts and their slow, torturous demise. I feel that Lux Aeterna is an example of music that Plato would highly disapprove of: the listener is compelled to feel tense and constantly on edge, as if he or she was personally thrust into the movie's dark plot. Lux Aeterna sways and seduces its audience: it is nearly impossible to not be caught up in the rich orchestra and vocals. According to Plato, it is an imitation of fear and is able to move us from an original, apathetic state to being enveloped by its melody. Lux Aeterna, and other pieces of music which seek to express a certain theme, deceive and conceal the self. Listening to such music, according to Plato, transforms us into the "other" instead of uniting us with the self.
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