singley.org > blog archives > A Musical Exercise 04.29.2003

A little exercise in music appreciation/interpretation:

Step 1: Check out amazing jazz composition grad student and all around great cat Dan Cavanagh's mp3 page.

Step 2: Download and listen to Split-Rock.

Step 3: Use the comments below to share the "story" you thought this piece was trying to tell. Try to ignore the title and instead write whatever came to your mind as you listened. I'll get things started.

I am a superhero in cognito, walking through the streets of a 1920s New York City. I do normal things like pick up some bread, get the mail, walk the dog...then, all of the sudden, there's trouble! A small child has wondered into traffic!! I use my super powers to invisibly dash in between cars, scoop him up, and whisk him away to safety! My work is done and I go about my business as if nothing unusual has happened.

I hear a waterslide in Split-Rock. Water is zooming through the slide...darting this way and that. Sometimes it enters dark tunnels...it is scary in there :( But then the water comes back out into the sunlight and continues on the delightful journey. And at one point in the music I heard a kid peeing in the water. He was later kicked out of the water park.

External: I am sitting in my office, staring out the window, twiddling my thumbs.

Internal: Split-Rock is playing inside my head as I daydream. There are scantily clad women - and no men. They are in a classy, dark bar. I walk in dressed in a tuxedo. I walk up to the bar and the attractive bartender has my drink - a VO Manhattan, two cherries - already poured. The ladies flock to me as I sip. I ignore all as I weave my way to a gorgeous, busty, bombshell whom I take into my arms and begin to dance as though I was born in a ballroom. She tosses her hair to the side and laughs, for the is the best night of her life.

External: My boss tells me to "get the hell away from her" and "for God's sake, dump out that flask!" The song - along with my reverie - is over.