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Predicament: Music and Whit 1 3/12/2012 6:59:50 PM
Whit came into Greater Trump slightly with less humor than usual. I knew him to have joie de vivre. He was a man who has this wry sense of humor that you would love to hear him caw. So, he sat at a seat by himself while the whole group of Trumps customer (the regulars) sat in a group and talked amongst ourselves. But as soon as I returned to my seat, there he was, standing next to me cawing and hee-hawing, although not really. But he was there and we started off with a conversation.
He has this program in hand and he showed it to me. He started off rattling even before I was ready to hear him speak. Then he asked me if I listened to music. I said, “Not often.” So he showed me the program, turned it to the page that he liked to show and pointed out that the introduction to the program was Mozart. But that is just to warm them up, I supposed. Actually, I was waiting for the punchline; but none came. Instead he pointed to the actual show which was that of Inon Barnatan. He closed his eyes like a kid in absolute delight before that kid dives into his chocolate icecream. And then, he looked at me in the eyes and asked me if I loved classical music. I said that that type of music makes me fall asleep; and by that I closed my eyes, dropped my head to my chest and snored. I’m feigning, of course. So he continued. He said, “… that it might not be music to me but different music applies to different people. Music is created no matter what it is, it is out there. You don’t get to choose who your audience is. The audience chooses their music.”
He went into his exposition of what music is and what it meant, especially classical music. I shall loosely paraphrase our conversation. “It fills the room. And music is like stretching the string like stretching horse hair while the baton (if that is what you call it) slides through it, producing a vibration. You know how violins are.” “Yeah, I know,” I answered. “At its core is music hitting the ear, the vibration hits the ear. You know I believe that it is only humans that can do that. Animals can’t do it. Chimpanzees don’t do it, can’t do it. Only humans can create culture (as we know it) and art. The vibration is horsehair being stretched and the baton sliding through it. Music is an arrangement of sound. It is a piano concerto that I went to and when Inon Barnatan played it was…” He mimics someone playing the paino, his fingers twitching in the air, in space while his eyes were close. And when he opened them again, he looked at me like I should be astounded. “And the auditorium is full of people paying top dollar so that they can hear music played. We take music for granted.”
I didn’t know that Whit loves music. Sure, we talked about Portland Festival (a Jazz Festival) and the like, before with Mission Mike (Yeah, another Mike). But I didn’t know that he loves music that much. If ever, he loves classical music, too. So, I don’t know who Inon Barnatan was, but he surely loved tonight’s performance. On his part, he loved to play the drum. He works for the Federal Government but his passion is his music.
Boy, this blog is taking that long to tell. So let me do this, let me give you Part II tomorrow and I am sure that you will enjoy my entry for Music and Whit.
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