Thursday 03 September
Occasionally, something special happens when I least expect it. And it’s these magical little moments that this blog gives time to. But I need to take time to properly notice them so that they stick.
If you’re not careful, these moments can easily pass you by. Fleetingly enriching your life before your mind slips your attention toward something else.
So, this afternoon/evening I was in the car with my wonderful daughter, just the two of us. An hour earlier I was at work. I had picked her up from her grandma’s to take her home via the supermarket as we needed a few things.
The radio was on and we were listening to Sarabande by Handel. A piece if music that, until today, I had never given much attention to. It had always seemed pretty monotonous and downbeat, but then Adora started speaking.
She started using words like ‘plagal cadance’ and ‘atonality’ to describe its construction. How its repeated pattern was simple but also how its combination of major and minor keys first lift the spirits of the listener then drops them with a melancholic slump. All this achieved by the three note combination at the end of each line. This added a complexity that was pure emotion.
We spent just the length of the piece (about four minutes) talking about it, but I got out of the car upbeat and grateful. On a day of workplace stress beneath an all-day shroud of low cloud and drizzle, I was grateful for that four minutes of precious time with Adora. Talking with her about how the music made us feel but mostly just listening to her deconstruct the piece. Hearing her explain how and why it effects our emotions as it does.
That piece has now come to life for me. It’s now a special thing and I will always associate it with my daughter. I won’t remember the technical words she used, but I will certainly remember how it made me feel and why.
The Bald Birder 