Out of time, out of timbre
modern life's accidental music
Modern life is punctuated by unexpected solos from all kinds of unofficial instruments.
The growling lawnmower. The oracular, ever-constant refrigerator.
And as I recently found out, the lamentous tree saw. (Scientific name: Chainsaw, often cutting a tree.) It intoned the familiar monosyllabic “Noooooo” that escapes involuntarily, with all of its being, full throttled.1
Easily mistaken for the more nimble, flying drone, this tree saw, not to be outdone, unleashed an unmistakable Lament: maestoso, rimpiante.2
Such a free performance led me to observe: the modern life soundtrack truly unfolds outside the constructs of time and timbre.3
The modern life soundtrack reflects present technologies and events in real time.
It tells what is unfolding to a degree and decibel volume previously not transmitted.
Near and distant sounds are snapshots of other[s’] lives.
The sounds one hears presage events that happen and are later discussed.
There are also more contributions to this soundtrack than often acknowledged.
Every motion of daily activity produces a sound typically ignored or tuned out.
We don’t tend to savor the sounds of our life’s actions unfolding.
Perhaps as an extension of this, objects—the instruments of this daily music—are not usually invented considering how the sound(s) they produce will amalgamate or integrate into the surrounding life music.
This makes it all the more stunning when accidental moments of music take place.
Or when music across instruments happens..
The street needed resurfacing, so the city dispatched official trucks to get it done.
All was quiet and uneventful on the sonic front.
But mid-afternoon, I distinctly heard a sonorous D, orchestrated alla Hans Zimmer, that went on for minutes.
Who’s playing? I walked outside and discovered the phantom symphony orchestra was emanating from a studious concrete truck.
Quantum sorcery? Projection? A case of, music transcending instruments?
I prefer to think: music is lying in wait, cloaked, all around us.
1 Facetiously, I counted about 17 interjections of varying duration, and noted at least one section audibly marked, “Like A Swarm of Bees; Furiously, a Mutiny.”
2 Majestic, regretful
3 Forget tuning, it is a relative concept..