For the Love of Music

Mama Kat Prompt: If you could change career paths now and be anything you wanted to be…what would you be and why?

So I've known the answer to this for a long time: I'd be a composer.  This is actually strange because I wouldn't define myself as a music person.  I don't listen to music that much, I was in band, but hated practicing and I never pick up my flute now.  But, if I had the ability, I would love to write orchestra pieces.  I wouldn't be writing pop music at all.  I'm talking about full score orchestral music.  Music that makes your heart sink and your soul rise.

There's this scene in the movie Amadeus, where Mozart is composing and he hears each instrument, their notes and themes and how they fit together as a whole (as a side note, I actually pretty much despise that movie except for that one scene).  I've always thought it would be so amazing to hear music in one's head and know how to get it down on paper so it could be played aloud.

Now, I totally do not walk around with melodies in my head.  Remember, not a music person.  But I do adore going to the symphony and listening to music done by people who do have this compulsion.  And I remember what it was like in my time in band to sit in the middle of the band and hear the pounding music around me: breath taking.

Here's my lament: the quality of our music has slipped over the years.  In general, we like simple drivel, music peppered with repetitive, similar tunes and words (see here for a great video on this; Jordan says this better than I can).  I get it.  We identify with the themes.  The music connects with our lives.  Still, it seems to focus less on artistic skill and far more on marketing.  Music sells.  Why do we see so many singers' lives collapse?  Because it isn't their lives that matter to the business: the money does.  However, I'm glad over the years I've found some good composers even in my day.  A lot of them write music for movies.  Howard Shore and James Newton Howard come to mind.  Gorgeous music.

I guess what I'm saying is I want to spend my time when I do listen to music listening to something that astounds me and moves me.  I don't want anyone to take from this that I want to bash pop music.  Pop music serves its purpose.  It's just that for me, pop music can never take me far enough.

(For the record, at least one person in my family has music skill.  My brother is a middle school band director and loves directing kids with the passion for music).