Dissonance

Monday's rehearsal was primarily focused on this new song that was just commissioned for us. And since it's a new song, it's weird. How weird? Go to a piano, and slam your palm down on the keys. That's the opening chord. Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but there's definitely not a whole lot of what I'd call "pretty sounds" in the deal. I think it's some kind of contemporary thing in choral music -- to prove you're a genius, you have to write in a bunch of weird intervals and dissonance.

The thing is, after singing weird intervals and dissonance for 3 hours straight, it starts to affect your outlook on life ... black becomes white, major becomes minor, dissonance becomes consonance. It's quite the mind-altering experience. So when we spent the last two minutes of rehearsal singing a happy, forte, major chord-filled "yay for God" type piece, it really restored my faith in humanity and realigned my moral compass.

The point is, minor diminished chords are all well and good, and they get the job done, but they'll fuck up your view of life. So watch out.

Today, we went to lunch to celebrate a coworker's pseudo-promotion (which is to say, she is moving from my team to another three rows down). I got to talking with my teammates, and somebody said something about how she admired those kids in high school who just know what they're going to be when they grow up. I said that I was one of those kids. She asked, "What did you want to be?" A teacher. Then other people got to talking about their prior ambitions, and I found myself suddenly sitting a table filled with wanted-to-be lawyers, veterinarians, and fashion designers. I also sat with a few "had no clue what I wanted to be and still don't"'s. What wasn't said underneath all this was, "...but I never thought I'd end up here..."

I was reminded of that scene in Big Fish when Bloom first leaves town and ends up in that really beautiful town in the middle of the forest. Everybody wants him to stay, but he can't 'cuz he needs to go out into the world and whatnot, but he'll be back someday. What's really going on, of course, is that this town is where everybody comes at some point. It's the comfortable place, the easy place where you go when you have no ambition left and just want an easy life.

And I think my job is kind of like that. But with more dissonance.