Tension
When I was a kid, my parents put me into piano lessons, which I took pretty much up until I went off to college. When I was really little, I remember thinking that each note was somehow good or evil. Their moral standing was not a static thing either. It varied from song to song. While a B-flat may have been a force for evil in one song, in the next, it was imbued with a righteous glow. Each notes respective goodness or badness was intuitively understood by my childhood self. I did not have any power to influence its standing no matter how hard I tried. It simply was what it was. I assume that this was part of the tension that certain songs play with, but I really don’t know.
I was remembering this outlook towards musical notes the other day when I was playing around with my keyboard and I realized that I no longer have the same moral compass. A note is simply a note, and does not have any inherent goodness or badness. I don’t have any memory of this changing at any given point in time, but I find myself wondering if a) I’ve gained some perspective and can thus see each note as simply a tool to be used for a purpose, or if b) I’ve lost some innate childhood insight into music that is really the deeper understanding. Maybe it’s a bit of both. I don’t know.
Explore posts in the same categories: Music, Musings
August 31st, 2006 at 3:03 pm
okay, here goes. My first ever comment posted. I feel vaguely like a peeping tomasina. Anyway, remember how Ingrid used to ask you whether a chord she was playing was a happy or a sad chord? Her way of teaching major and minor chords may have contributed to your moral evaluation, perhaps? But what about vibrations and their relationship to colors, moods and brain waves? There does seem to be something somatic about it all. It’s all very interesting. Get that piano!
September 1st, 2006 at 12:00 am
I can relate to you on this one. When I was young, I thought of colors being “good” or “bad”. I wouldn’t color my coloringbook with pale green because it was bad. I loved red and bright blue because it was good. Now, colors are just that, colors…..amazing how we change, eh man?
September 1st, 2006 at 8:06 am
The magic of childhood! I love the two posts you’ve written that point to the ways a child mind flows. I have two children and I work in an elementary school and I feel completely blessed to have both.
Specific to this entry, I remember reading or hearing somewhere about the “good vs. evil” thing that children identify things with, something to do with fairy tales. I wish I could recall, but I know it had something to do with “magical thinking” and childhood.
Suddenly I am inspired to listen to the “Into The Woods” soundtrack