Enter, Stage Right

Do you ever consciously or subconsciously assign your own leitmotif?

Periodically, when walking down the hallway at work, or sitting at my desk typing an e-mail, or pulling the Jeep into traffic, I hear the opening strings of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" in my head -- the forthright drums giving them a sense of purpose and expectation.

The other evening at the dinner table, my wife, who works in a tutoring program with local high school students, said one of the kids asked her what her theme would be is she could have a song played whenever she enters a room.

At professional baseball games, sometimes the players select a few bars of a favorite tune to blast over the speakers as they move from the on-deck circle to the batter's box.  I've always wondered what I'd choose in such a scenario (certain, though, I'd never have to wrestle with such concerns of professional athletes).

Darth Vader gets an imperial theme to accompany his presence in the Star Wars movies.  Brünnhilde and Siegfried are likewise musically announced in Götterdämmerung or Wagner's earlier operas of Der Ring des Nibelungen.

Should I go with gravitas?  Or whimsy?  Or perhaps a regal brass fanfare?

I'm still mulling.