Photo Corners headlinesarchivemikepasini.com
A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
Friday Slide Show: A Music Box
5 December 2025
We know nothing at all about this music box except Mom kept it on her dresser. When we peeked inside we didn't discover anything of any particular interest. You could even say it wasn't worth salvaging.
But the heart has its own reasons, to paraphrase Pascal.* So we gave it a home.
And a story.
We imagined it was a gift from Dad to Mom, maybe a Valentine's Day present. It depicts two love birds after all.
One reason we couldn't let it go, though, was pure vanity. We recognized the tune but we couldn't remember what it was called.
We could almost sing the words. We knew there were words that accompanied the tune. But we couldn't conjure them up. We moved our lips but no sound came out.
Not until we started photographing the music box, that is. Then it occurred to us.
It's the theme to the 1970 movie Love Story. Composed by Francis Lai, it was originally called just Theme from Love Story as the instrumental which played during the opening and closing credits of the movie. It was later embellished with lyrics. Wikipedia tells the story:
Michael Sigman, son of lyricist Carl Sigman, recalled that his father was asked to provide the words and received "a synopsis of the script and the lead sheet of the music. The story was schmaltzy, but the music inspired words that expressed the sadness beneath the schmaltz." The initial set of lyrics his father wrote mirrored the storyline of the film from the perspective of the male protagonist, who describes a woman who enters his life ("So Jenny came") and then "suddenly was gone." Paramount executive Robert Evans "thought the lyric was a 'downer.' Further, he couldn't abide the phrase 'Jenny came,' believing it too sexually suggestive for a mainstream audience. He demanded a rewrite," and this upset Carl. "At first, justifiably proud of the fine lyric he crafted, he was angry and felt like refusing to do a rewrite. But the next day he cooled off and, pacing around his living room, said to his wife, 'Where do I begin?' and the new lyric was launched."
"Where do I begin," it goes, "to tell the story of how great a love can be?"
The person who tells the story in the film is the surviving partner. But in our parents' case, there is no surviving partner any more. And the story is necessarily untold.
Kids have a sense of the relationship between their parents. It can make them feel secure in the world or it can make them frightened of it. But kids are kids. They don't yet know how love works, what little things like a music box mean.
Only later, when you've tried it yourself, do you appreciate the relationship your parents had. And maybe you find a trinket like a music box on a dresser to remind you.
We wound the main spring and listened once again to the music of that love.
