Tonality of Today

A tone sounds. A sound rooted in the real world. Physical. Sensed through hearing. Also by feeling the vibration of sound, of tone. Tonality. The substance and full sensation of sound.


Have you ever been in a room alone? Turned on the sound system and played a CD or record? The music plays and you listen. What do you hear? Vibrations comprising musical tones. Sonority of some; squeaky high pitch of others; rumbling bass notes from a few. Notes sounding together, chords, movement of chords, single lines of notes moving about as well.


The tones have order. They sound a theme and move it through time and space. The sound reverberates in my ears, on my face, around my body. Echoing through the room and gaining space and volume. Loudness and softness, too. The theme driven by rhythm and tempo. Speeds vary throughout. Expression forms.


Melody sweetens the sound and my mind attaches to it. Then I remember it. Hum it many minutes after first hearing it. Some tones insist on being, interrupting other tones and thoughts. They march through the music fighting for control while the melody pulls back the spotlight time and again.


Sound. Tones. Tonality. Characteristics ever changing that give the sounds specific order and existence, not repeated by others as their creation, only to be remembered and reproduced over and over again if the mind perceives it as memorable. Meaningful in some way or other.


The mood of the mind changes with the sounds. It is heightened, brightened, uplifted and swept away. Soaring here and swooping there. The mood follows the line of tones steering through my consciousness. It is speaking to me. It is sounding like everyday sounds. Perhaps bird song? Or wind sweeping through a forest in tall mountains? Maybe it is insistent horns or sirens from a city streetscape?


I once rode a fishing boat in a near wilderness area of Canada. Others were fishing. I was reading, basking in the sun, and just being there. On the front of the boat out of everyone’s way. The sun danced on the water’s surface. The breeze pushed through my hair. Summer’s warmth cocooned my body. Trees of forest and woods on shore marched past the boat. And a theme came into my mind. A musical theme. Natural and simple. It was from Beethoven’s 6^th Symphony, the Pastoral. Imitative of birdsong and simple melodies of nature.


I hummed or sang that theme for the rest of the vacation. Nature had spoken. Through song and tone.

Rich and memorable are the sounds of music. An intellectual process to be sure, but one of communication of more than mere idea. Mood, feeling, senses, all taken together to sound more of what it means.


I wonder what a symphony would sound like of the year 2020? Would it be sweet and harmonious? Or cacophonous and blaring? Discordant crashing's? Or a march toward a certain end?


I wonder.


January 31, 2020