Nightmares Involving Violin
It was terrible! I dreamt that a car ran over my violin, and I held the pieces in my arms... That's when I woke up... and couldn't go back to sleep for some time.
Sometimes having in my possesion a violin (that isn't mine) terrifies me because I'm paranoid of something happening to it. It's such a fragile, old, expensive little box!
It's not the first time that it happens: I've had similar nightmares before. Has anyone else had any? Details, details...!
Replies (46)
you still havn't given the violin back? maybe this is a sign...
of course i would try to hold on to it as long as possible.
Insure it! Get a valuation that your friend agrees with, and insure it for that. I just added the cello I borrowed to our house and contentes policy - no extra cost. I did that the day I went to pick it up.
I can't tell you how many times I've had this dream: I am going to a performance, but I don't know what I'm supposed to play (I have to sight read), and when I get there, I'm totally naked.
Ah, the car over violin dream. I recall my old GA Gutter III, ca 1790. Lovingly restored. Sold it. The owner RAN OVER IT WITH HER CAR. A friend of mine finally told me about it, but only after he had glued all the toothpicks back together to make a violin again!
Pay attention to those dreams. A car running over your violin? Is there an upcoming audition that you're nervous about; are you afraid of being rejected by a school or an orchestra? And about being naked: the oldest dreams in the book. They mean you are feeling very insecure about yourself unconsciously.
Do you read Freud Sarah?
All my nightmares contain;
1) A untuned violin
2) An empty can of prunes
3) A possesed japanese
Greetings,
sounds like a dream come true to me,
Cheers,
buri
No, but I have little Freud finger puppets in my office. The crazy kids love them.
Sarah some people appear to be unconscious all the time..........can it really rule the conscious? However aside from that, I love my violin too. Despite all its moods and off days I couldn't live without it. My teacher backed his car over his violin so you can imagine what went on when that happened.
Thank heavens, I have my handy "dream dictionary" right here:
"car" -- the physical body, the vehicle used through this life; movement toward a goal or away from a situation.
"accident" -- usually a warning of some kind, making a wreck of life or things.
"naked" -- warning of being exposed.
"airport" -- often associated with high ideals or religious endeavors; soul trip; a desire to rise above worldly problems or responsibilities.
"luggage" -- a burden
"losing valuables" -- losing spiritual values or a warning of possible theft
"loss" -- fear of loss, or joy over separation
Ooooooooooh and Kismet, let us know if Hollywood is chasing you up for an audition.......
I like your list Laurie!
I haven't had any bad nightmares regarding my violin playing, by my one fear of what might happen my first time of playing with an orchestra happened the first time I played in concert with an orchestra.
Greetings,
Laurie, I trust your dictionary has an entry for prunes?
Cheers,
Buri
What was that, Kelsey?
Buri, there appears to be a major oversight in not just one, but both dream dictionaries that I possess. No mention of prunes whatsoever. Under "plum," however, one says, "A female sexual organ. (!) In the Orient, it means luck, and is also an erotic symbol, suggesting domestic bliss."
BTW, under "violin," it says, "An idealization of the female body. Or wanting to play 'first violin.' As with all music instruments, harmony is addressed; and as with all string instruments, the image symbolizes the 'string of nerves' as well as the mood and tension of the person. The resonating power of a violin also points to how our inner world resonates. It could be interpreted as the 'echo of the soul.'"
(Both of the above compliments of Klaus Vollmar, author of The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Dream Symbols. )
i also know somebody who backed over their violin, but the case didn't break! i should find out what brand that was.
I had a dream last night that I was at a summer festival. I just started Beethoven Concerto last week, but I dreamt I had to play it for Aaron Rosand (he taught at the camp I went to last summer..) But, while walking down the hall, I realized I had only been working on it for a week, and I was no where ready to play it for a teacher, nevermind Rosand. It was awful. I don't actually remember the lesson, but it was mortifying just thinking about it. Yikes!
CHLOE
What happened, you asked, Laurie?
I kind of did improvisation for a chunk of the piece, and then right at one of my favorite climaxes, the orchestra didn't come in at the key moment, and we were off, I tried to re-adjust, in turn throwing myself off, and that passage had so much shifting in it, it was near impossible to get back on, so we just kind of left out a few lines, and I looked at the conductor, and I started in as the orchestra faded out, where I knew everyone would be able to know where we were. The piece finished fine, and overall I thought I did a not half bad, my first time with an orchestra, but it's amazing how much stuff goes through your mind when something like that happens.
Wow! I'm glad it worked out, but I can see how that could be rather stressful!
i had 2 nightmares involving violin.
the first is like this:
i'm in a big concert and befor the concert starts i went to talk to the soloist then the conductor tells me are you ready we are starting now. i didn't know what he meant then he told play brahms concerto. i told him you must be mistaken i'm not the soloist and i didn't even finish mendelssohn. he told me don't worry just think of it and your fingers will play naturally. then he pushed me to the stage. i was so terfied that i couldn't breath
then the orchestra started playing the intro.when my part came i played the first line perfctly then i couldn't move my right arm at all and the orchestra stoped playing then i turn around to the conductor&the orchestra they were staring at me with really scary eyes that when i woke up. it was so realistic and really scarry.
and the second one is like this.
it's my first day at some conservatoir. every thing was okay until some presentation started where i realize that i was wearing nothing but a blanket but no one thought it was wierd. then i had to play but i can't let go of the blanket and some of the teachers urged me to hold the violin but if i hold it i'll lose the blanket.then they told me that i'll be kicked out if i don't play,so i let go of the blanket 2 play. that's when i woke up.
i had the same dream alot.
and i dream alot of the blanket 4example going to collge with just the blanket or visiting somplaces wearing only it or falling from our house to a well where i drawn ((WITH))the blanket. what's wied is that the blanket is always exactly the same.
Okay, AbIn, this is what the dictionary says, but it is a little lame:
"Success" -- do you want to be successful?
I still remember, when I was auditioning for colleges and trying like crazy to conquer the Mendelssohn, having an absolutely blissful dream that I played it perfectly. It was funny, because at the time, I was really struggling with it. I don't know that I ever ended up playing it *perfectly*, but I did learn to play it and did get into the colleges where I applied!
About the blankie dream, Maxim, I think it means that to play, you have to expose yourself (of course not in quite as literal a way as your dream!), and perhaps you are uncomfortable exposing yourself.
"blanket" -- comfort, rest, protection
I had this horrible dream, not so long ago that my violin was all dried up and curled up because I left it lying in the sun. It looked like dried up African ground, if you know what I mean by that. (with cracks and lines in it).
When I woke up, the first thing I did was look in my violin case.
I started playing in orchestras around the same time I was finishing school.
When I was in school I would frequently have dreams about arriving late and/or completely unprepared for an exam. Once I finished school the dreams conveniently morphed into arriving late and/or completely unprepared for a concert. The more things change....
I only just dreamed about violins last night. And I was at an airport trying to get on the plane and couldn't find my luggage. I absolutely had to make the plane, so I was going to resort to leaving my belongings until I remembered the violin. I spent the rest of the dream running around looking. And usually when I have a dream involving delays, I end up in a restroom with no privacy. And something about either being naked or trying to put on clothes.
Other musical dreams involve the usual violin breaking, warping, chipping, strings popping, mutations into other instruments never before seen by the human eye. I envy my creative mind that emerges in dreams. Sometimes I try drawing the images, but they defy visual description.
The very best dreams are the ones in which music plays. I have heard detailed orchestrations, completely composed by my brain, and wake up with it so loudly ringing that I grab my ears. I wish I could write them down before they fade. But sometimes, I awaken with a newly created complete score and lyrics to an 80's-style cheesy pop song. Or a polka. That's a nightmare...
Hello again.
Does anyone have dreams about violins being broken down and made into other things? I recently dreamt that my mother gave me a gift of chopsticks and pencils, which she presented to me in a brown box. I was initially very grateful, until I realised that the case was my violin case and that my mother had been doing some careful recycling and re-creating. I was very sad and started to cry, but she couldn't understand why. I woke up feeling scared and went to check the foot of my bed where I keep my violin at night. It was there and it was fine--ahhhh!
Hey, guys. Has anyone ever wondered if we actually meet other people in our dreams who exist in reality? We all seem to be dreaming about airports, reversing cars, violins, etc...Just a thought.
Wow, interesting chopsticks dream! A counsellor once told me to analyse my dreams like this: take each aspect and say "I am [add aspect of dream]", then try to understand in what metaphorical way this is true. So you'd say "I am a violin broken down for chopsticks" or "I am a violin lost at the airport" or "I am an airport at which a violin has been lost". Um... Ignore me, I don't know what I'm talking about, though sometimes this method makes sense for my dreams.
OK, what does this mean: when I was learning the cello a year or so ago, I used to dream quite often about it, about specific points of playing it. Kind of clear, probably useful 'learning' dreams. I never dream at all about the violin. So is the violin beyond the grasp on my unconscious, which is perhaps why I'm not good at it despite my efforts? So: "I am a cello, which I can understand and learn" but I'm not a violin. Hmmmmm
For those of you who sleep with music playing..Has anyone ever had a dream in which the music playing outside of the dream you could hear in your dream?It happens to me a lot, usually when I dream about it there is a violinist in my dream playing the piece. I hope I made sense.
Yeah, that was one of my earliest dreams. I was being kidnapped and forced into a car. Suddenly, my cousin was there, and I called to her, saying, "Help me Rhonda, help help me Rhonda, help me Rhonda yeah, get me out of their car!"
OK, my dreams involve flute since that's what I play; but these dreams could be on any instrument, pretty much. I have one good one and one bad one.
The good dream: I'm in an orchestra and we are playing some huge cosmic kind of C major chord, and it sounds & feels AWESOME... kind of like the final section of Death & Transfiguration, only with an orchestra of about 5,000 people, all playing perfectly in tune. Woke up in a great mood.
The bad dream: I am supposed to play a concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra. I keep putting off practicing because it's a piece I know, until finally in my dressing room right before the concert (apparently we have had no rehearsals), I decide I should probably play through it once just to be sure. I get through the first page and then can't remember ANYTHING. Then the knock comes on the door: "Five minutes..." Woke up panicking and was SO HAPPY when I realized I was in bed and not backstage in Philadelphia!
Thank heavens, I have only had that dream once.
Funny thing this thread is here... I just had a nightmare last night about my violin being stolen! I was actually at a restaurant, post concert, enjoying a late dinner and a drink, when I reached to look over my shoulder to see if my violin was still there, where I put it (on a chair, next to me). To my disbelief it was gone! I called the cops with details about my violin and I was assured they are going to look for it. What's interesting is that after waking up the pain of losing my violin was so real that I needed a few minutes to realize it was all but a nightmare!! I better watch my violin now!...
This thread appears to be wishing nightmares upon people. I had one last night that I got a really nasty rejection letter to the program I auditioned for this summer.
I have definitely had dreams, but not about my own instrument, about a family member's (much more valuable than my own)..I was "violin-sitting", and locked it in the trunk of the car while I ran an errand. When I got outside, the case was on the sidewalk..I screamed bloody murder, opened the case and found everything in tact. It was horrifying. Never had the dream of having my instrument run over by a vehicle, although I must admit as a student who didn't love practicing I fantasized about it.
You aren't kidding Dumitru! This is a really odd thread!
I read it just last night and sure enough:
I had a dream that I was offered a private lesson by a composite of Perlman, Elman and Heiefetz...It started with a really pleasant Perlman inviting me in. Then he was Elman and everything was going great until I realized I didn't have a violin and I was playing on air, at which point I was met with a truely stern looking Heifetz expression that could only say one thing 'Why are you wasting my time?'...
On the other hand, a few months ago, while I was practicing like 6 hours a day, I had a dream that a Kirin offered to let me travel on it's back on the condition that I offer my services as a dream-courier...I accepted of course...Who wouldn't!
I don't think this thread is bringing upon nightmares to everyone, but rather I think that we all have these dreams and thanks to (or because of) this thread we're think about them more...
I certainly HOPE this thread isn't causing people to have nightmares!!!
-WZ
William: I agree, it is an interesting phenomina though...
But honestly, I tend to prefer the occasional interesting nightmare over dreams of grocery shopping or whatever any day!
Two days ago I dreamt that I was practising Bach's well-tempered clavier on my digital piano in my bedroom and suddenly there was a lot of noise in the living room. I walked to the living room and saw an upright piano (which I don't have) and some of my relatives were visiting us from overseas. My dreams never make sense.
I wish I was dreaming of playing Paganini on a Stradivari in a huge concert hall filled with audience instead. Who knows, maybe I will be lucky tonight when I go to bed.
I dreamed the other night that my old high school music teacher (who I was hopelessly in love with) broke my violin! I was on some sort of school trip or orchestra tour, and I picked up my violin to find the fingerboard in three pieces! When I looked up, aforementioned object of lust was watching me and laughing. I intended to dig out my copy of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams after this thread started, actually, but couldn't find it. Anyone else got it? Buri, you know who you are...
AH!!! I just had a nightmare that I was playing a solo infront of a huge audience, and my bow hair started coming off one by one, in strands, one after another, until I was literally down to three hairs. In the middle of my piece, I had a short break, so I yanked the hairs off, and continued to play... I got more and more nervous because it sounded like crap, playing on three hairs and all...anyway. To make a long story short I woke up in a nervous sweat gripping the strands of yarn I was using to crochet before I fell asleep....
>:O
I'm sure that's the violinist's version of the classic teeth-falling-out dream.
i've got interpretation of dreams somewhere, its deathly boring. If i remember it correctly: this dream shows that you secretly wish to be abused by an "authority figure", and i'd make an educated guess that it might involve prunes...
sorry, i hate frued.
That's the loss of control dream I think. I had one recently where I was suddenly sitting in the concertmaster's chair rather than the assistant's chair (not that I occupy either in real life) and he was instead on the podium conducting. I was pleading with him "I can't sit here, I CAN'T play! I'm not prepared for the solos!" I was begging my stand partner to take them and no one would help me. Interestingly everyone around me was sitting much higher up than I was, it was as if I was shrinking down in size..an analysts dream I suppose.
interesting, you could have a field day with that one.
Oh, I already know the hidden meanings in that one. :)
This weekend, before I was to play Carmina Burana with my orchestra, I dreamed I went to the dressing room to change for the performance; turns out, the new orchestra uniform was a cute little bikini. This posed no problem for me, as I am always so devilishly good-looking in my dreams...
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March 16, 2004 at 10:00 PM · Yes, I do.
I have dreams that involve me loosing my musical mentor's cello after he has leant it to me for safekeeping. This dream always occurs 'at' the airport. I also used to have a re-occuring dream that involved the belly of my violin caving in because my strings were at too high a tension. I know it's really horrible when this happens, but it's because we value our violin's like our friends, indeed, they are our friends.
Sleep easy by finding something really trivial to concern yourself with, such as marshmallows or industrial widgets. If the former get squashed, they'll just bouce back up again. The latter are usually so strong that no car could ever do them harm. It's all a matter of priority and proportion, you see... I hope I have succeeded in distracting you.
All the best,
Susannah