Saturday Smiley: MUSIC

If you’ve read enough of my previous posts, it is evident that 1) I love Jesus; B) I am musically-obsessed; Choo-choo Train) I like to write randomly about random things (hence the subtitle of my blog, “Anna’s Random Writings.”  Cuz that’s what it is).  But LATELY, my music obsession has flared up again.  And, it makes me smile.  (Hence, the Saturday Smiley!)

As I am a junior in college, I have taken most of the music side of my music education major classes.  I LOVE learning what I’ve been learning!  Just this last week, there was a night when I couldn’t fall asleep so….I had seen the Nokia ringtone transcribed, poking fun at the NY Philharmonic violinist who imitated the disruption.  So, I copied it down on music staff paper and rewrote it in retrograde form, inversion, and retrograde inversion. =)

Music is SUCH a broad topic that it can’t be adequately described in just one post, and I’m sorry if this gets long (disclaimer).

So, this week, I have been thinking about the feeling and emotion that music creates.  No other art does this, no other school subject or anything, really.  Something that makes you feel the way the composer did when he wrote it?  Last year, I did an independent study in which I researched music therapy.  Did you know that David of the Bible was the first recorded music therapist?  Although he had another name.  Yeah, he used to play his harp for King Saul (who probly had some sort of disorder…have you READ 1 Samuel?).  Cool stuff!  My own personal releases are writing when words come or playing when notes come.  Mom and Dad got me a drum set for my thirteenth birthday.  They may have questioned it a time or two when I was really mad or something.  If you would like to hear the drum set being played in my house, you might sit outside on a lawn chair or something if it’s a nice day out.  The volume is only slightly dampened.  The piano in our house also was the instrument of some good stuff, and still is when I come home!  =)

I love how there is literally, a song for everything.  I love how in instrumental music, you can feel.  My sister recently made a video for a class—with aid of the background music, you could totally feel the…adrenaline of the scene.  I think pretty much anything can be epic with background music, you know, the instrumental kind.  My personal favorite part is when the low brass or string basses sneak in and play something that is just waiting for something to happen.  Tomorrow, the Augustana Orchestra (of which I’m a percussionist for) is playing a concert—Shostakovitch’s Ninth is one of my favorites on the program!

Anyway, this wasn’t as long as I worried it might.  I stopped myself.  I told my physical therapist last week that deep down, everyone wants to be a music major.  He agreed!  He’s like, “I used to sing.  I wonder what it woulda been like to be a singer instead of a physical therapist.”  Ha!  There is so much more to music than one can hear or see at a glance.  It is a language, and there is a science to it.  Music has its own math, and I never even realized how complex it is until I got to Augie!  It’s crazy, and I love it!

In conclusion, MUSIC is my Saturday Smiley!

Smiling musically, Anna =)^2