Music Tyrade

  • The solace of music, substance of contentment. The air is filled with sounds, and words ride on the wind created by the ceiling fan. A woman's voice, high and light. Her guitar, a powder blue color. I sit and rock, forth and back, and forth again. My foot shakes beneath the desk, in time to the rhythm that is. I have no intention, only to write and see what I say. The music dispels any real thought, any significant notion, any meaningful idea. I am just hosting the music, allowing it to pass through me, and interpreting the sounds into small words upon the screen. I hear the harmonies, and they remind me of birds that fly in perfect formation, and also of different shades of the same color, overlapping and matching quite nicely. I have said before that harmony is my favorite aspect of music. If I had to break it down, I would say that there are three parts to music, these being the rhythm, the melody, and the harmony. The rhythm is pure love, it is the speed, also the beat, the tempo; sometimes invisible, rhythm is the base, the bottom, the underneath, the floor, the Earth of a song. The rhythm provides the stage upon which the rest of the music may occur; the rhythm says, "Here you go." The rhythm is for dancing. It is the prompt. It begins, and that's your cue. The melody is the answer to the prompt of the rhythm. It is for singing, or playing. The melody joins the rhythm, it is carried by the rhythm through time, to its completion and ultimate resolution. The melody is a stream of notes, in an order that is pleasing to the fingertips and eardrums. It starts in one place, and ends in another, perhaps even the same place. The melody has a lifespan, it has a definite measure. It may go wherever it likes, but for it to be pleasing to the eardrums and fingertips, it must return "home," else it should become lost and no longer be recognized or understood; the purpose of a melody is to be remembered. The rhythm is eternal, the melody is temporal. The rhythm must repeat for the rhythm to be. Yet the melody may stand alone, without being repeated or played again. The melody is preserved and saved within memory. Yet the rhythm must be created from scratch each and every time it is needed. Rhythm is toneless while melody is to tone. But harmony... Harmony is different. Harmony may only exist after rhythm and melody have been established; it is an addition, a supplement and complement to the whole; it is extra. It accentuates the melody by occuring within the same rhythm, teasing the melody, giving it a depth and volume. The two notes become eachother. It reproduces the melody. If rhythm is the father, and melody is the mother, then harmony is the child who joins his parents to make the family even more complete than it could have been before; the child helps its parents understand and continue to feel eachother throughout the duration of the song. I love the harmony. I can't explain it. It just sounds so good. I love it because it takes two voices. One voice can sing the melody, but two voices can sing the harmony. Harmony represents friendship, agreement, understanding, and acceptance. It is all I want. Rhythm and Melody are all I need, but Harmony is all I want. God, this music. Thank God for music.
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