For someone who claims to understand Schopenhauer's line - music is the highest form of aesthetic contemplation, I am ashamed to confess this innocence. While it is my fortune to live in a generation not too far apart, I only discovered and appreciated Led Zeppelin in my early-to-mid thirties, about the same time I hatched a fascination for Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. This evening, I'm reading a back issue of Rolling Stone (a magazine I'm reading only for the first time in my life) and am especially embarrassed that I didn't have a clue who Pete Seeger was. Not that it was bad, but perhaps I did listen to too much chillout, grunge, alternative, jazz. The award for most-played song in our iTunes goes to Humpty Dumpty (546 times) succeeded by the second placer Incy Wincy Spider (489 times).
I've had the pleasure of listening to the up and coming local indie bands, but I don't widen my circles enough to be in music festivals with overpriced tickets or frequent local clubs with overpriced beer.
But why should I be so glum? Music is a wand that brings both magic and meaning to our lives without the aid of logic or explanation. The time and place when you open that portal of discovery is less relevant. Music, no matter where or when, elevates us anyway.
Music is an experience that tends to lift us to higher planes. In line with that, we are launching the kids off to an early start. 546 repeats of Humpty Dumpty should suffice, so a few days ago, I got little I. to sing the chorus of Bowie's Starman. Let the children lose it, let the children use it, let all the children boogie, yeah! When he was younger, I considered it a parental accomplishment that he can sing lines from Yellow Submarine.
It is also through music that we had one of our most tender moments so far, V. You must have been hearing all the music in the house, but we found time to take the wireless speakers and set it close to your mother's tummy. While your mother carries you and feeds life into you, I love you the way I know how. I made you a playlist. Here are the first songs you've ever listened to:
Spiegel Im Spiegel, Arvo Part
Piano Concerto in F Minor, JS Bach
Nuvole Bianche, Ludovico Einaudi
I'll be honest and I'll say that this world of ours can be often terrible - there's capitalism, apartheid, to name a few terrible things. But I also can't wait for you to come hear this world. In your first years, I'll rock and dance with you to Explosions in the Sky, Yo-Yo Ma, the classics. We'll take care of the apartheid and capitalism later on.
For now I can boast that I am the first man to make you a playlist, and I will be the first man to dance with you. Beat that, future boyfriends.
