Found in the Chords

Way back in the last century, we were enjoying some non-medical marijuana with a buddy in our college dorm room. We were listening to something on our stereo (it might have been an LP!), we can't remember what, but all of a sudden, our pal, let's call him Fred, sat up and ejaculated, "That's me! That chord! I am that chord!"

"You're a B-flat major chord?" Out There replied, skeptically. But yes, there was something about the key, and the notes sounded within it, that spoke to Fred. Now, he was an unusual dude, but this brief exchange has always stayed with us. We'd heard of people identifying with their astrological sign, or their spirit animal, but with a musical iteration? How odd.

But then recently, we were at home, sitting around in our underwear and listening to music on our stereo (it might have been a CD!), when a passage in the piece sure enough called out our name. It was the third movement, Tempo di valtzer lentissimo, in Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 6, and we realized: That measure of music was us! We understood what Fred had been getting at, all those years ago.

Now, there were reasons for this that go beyond mere aural hallucination. First, we've always found Russian music of the 20th century compelling, it speaks to us. Second, we had piano training as a youth, so we "hear" music for keyboards in our fingers as well as our ears. Third, the recording we own, of Prokofiev's Piano Sonatas 6 & 8, played by the gifted young pianist Francois-Frederic Guy (Naive), is an excellent one. Finally, perhaps a tempo di valtzer lentissimo correlates with our natural rhythms.

Music is an art-form that has been key in our life. As a child, OT was enrolled in a young recitalists' program through the Peabody Institute in Baltimore. It's one of the oldest and most distinguished music schools in the country, and its building in the Mount Vernon neighborhood is stately and grand. Our recitals were held in church basements and school auditoriums, but the love of music they instilled in OT remains until this day.

As a young man, OT was fortunate to live in group houses with pianos, even when we lived at the radical faerie sanctuary in Wolf Creek, OR. We remember playing a Chopin piece in the living room there when a faerie came up to us and proclaimed, "Even though it's mere juvenilia, you put it across well."

In our middle age, we're lucky enough to live within metronome range of Davies Hall and other recital halls in Civic Center, where we've heard some of the best pianists in the world perform. We love all kinds of music, but it's the Western classical repertory that really gets us where we live. We can listen to these works over the course of a lifetime without their ever getting old.

Here's to the crunchy chords and queer time signatures that get us where we live!