Bonne Musique

Music can be understood by everybody. A two year old kid can hum a tune along, without knowing what scale it is in or how many notes exist or the timing in which it is played. All the kid needs to know is that it sounds good and he can enjoy and jump around while it is played. Music is more or less the same for most of them who do not indulge themselves into the deeper intricacies. At least that is how I saw music. Later you start to appreciate the lyrics and the meaning attached to them. There were so many times that I was hearing a particular track for the nth time in the wee hours and wondering what would have gone thru the mind of the songwriter to have inspired him / her to write something like this. Other times I like the tracks that show some courage and are filthy at the outset. They do have meanings behind them. Some represent deep resentment, some others intense hatred while some other are for the departed and the desolate. There are happy songs too, but to me they dont appeal mostly, they end up being just short of a disco track. Every genre has its audience. Some songs take you into a trance that is enjoyable, some make you cry and some you can relate to. These songs and their lyrics start to make in a lot of sense. They become a sort of a companion. I communicate in a sort of strange way with music. It is not a one way communication.  While the songwriter, composer and the musician speak in their own unique ways, I reciprocate with my thoughts and feelings. It intensifies my emotions. It captures the fleeting and eluding thoughts, crystalises them and gives it a form that I can recognise. A good song makes me think, makes me imagine. It is not complete but it is also not incomplete. It leaves me content and hungry at the same time. One such song is Californication. It stirs something within me, mostly the riff that is played by Frusciante and Flea creates a melody so resonant and smooth. Its like weed, just a bit warmer and short lived. Then the lyrics play with my mind, keeps me guessing all the while. I wonder whether there was any thought behind the lyrics or it was plain scribbling. But then I construct some meaning into it. It makes sense and again it doesn't. It confuses me and then I say what the hell, Kiedis' voice makes sense, it would make sense even if it was greek.

I sit and wonder that how non-corporeal, how intangible, how physically disconnected the efforts of these musicians are to the eventual master-piece that is produced. I cannot define what would have exactly gone into making it, what learning would have led to creation of something so celestial. But something definitely does. A musician would have to keep so much faith in the self and other teammates, the efforts put in. It is far more courageous than it seems. Malcolm Gladwell says- put in 10000 hrs = genius. Success stories do inspire awe, do lead us to dream, to believe something so unquantifiable, unpredictible and uncontrollable is possible. Someone else has done it, so can I.

 All this said & done, what about the failures. We don't hear about those who tried, worked hard and failed. We would never what wrong did they do. Only then we could may be quantify what right the winners did. Well I believe it would all boil down to luck. Being at the right place at the right time. You can only increase your probability by doin it all the time, so that when the right time arrives, you are doin it.

There is a beautiful maths in music. Music has only 12 notes. All the music that has ever been created in this world is within the realm these 12 notes.

Since the beginning of music and so far, there has been so much creation, so much exploring, discovering but I wonder how come there are no two songs that match note by note. Unless the intention was to reproduce it note by note.

The maths makes it impossible in fact. Every note is like a word. Just like a combination of words make up a statement, combination of notes put together makes a line. And similar to the statements becoming paras,

these lines become a song. At every step there are 12 choices for the composer. suppose there are 12 notes in a particular line. The possible permutations would be 12!. The whole thing to repeat itself would be next to impossible. To make it further impossible, there are octaves, half notes etc etc... 

The beauty of music is unending. The further you travel on the path of discovering music, the wider the path gets. The ear opens up, you hear more things in the same song you listened to before. You recognise patterns of song and connect to another, you see how beautifully the words form a sentence and paragraphs, and how beautifully the whole thing is stitched together to become a larger, more coherent and succint it gets.

It is fortunate that we are born in a time where information is so easily available. We can find explanations to the unanswered phenomena. We are fortunate to be a part of a civilisation, a race, a species that can produce, appreciate, communicate music. We can savour the music in its finest sense and enjoy its wildness at the extremes. It is something that inspires, reveals and creates a feeling that is inexplicable. It caters to the tastes of extreme sensibilities. Everyone loves music in some form or the other. It is the inevitable part of the life. 

When all this is splurting out of the brain, I realise, it is an important part of life but not an essential part of life.

We can live without music. Just that the music enhances the experience of living. In this dull, mundane rut of a life, it sparks some fire and sets the ambience for a smoother sailing. God bless the musicians.