Stealing Time
Imagine if you could steal time from later today because you need it now; such as not needing the 2 hours of TV show re-runs, and being able to just snip that portion of your day out to use those 2 hours to finish a project! Just think of being able to cut out hours you don’t need now and banking them to use later, when they would really make a difference.
Okay, I agree, this is something most of us can do through basic time management, but think if we could all have magic time scissors!! It would help many people (or at least it would help me!). I know this would make a huge difference in the quality of meals I eat, how much I sleep and in general, my “getting-things-done” list would shrink by a mile!
I started thinking about stealing time after I found the tempo rubato page on Wikipedia. I understand that getting excited about tempo rubato is nerdy, but I can’t help myself. I think it’s cool.
Rubato (this is the modern definition) is essentially when the musician changes the timing of musical phrases in a piece to accentuate its musicality or “feeling”. They’ll speed up one part because it “feels” like it should be faster, or want to indicate frenzy, anger, etc. Or they’ll slow a section down to accent its calming or sad qualities. This could make a song end later or sooner than the original composition.
Tempo rubato is when the musician “steals” time from one part of the piece and uses it in another place in the same piece, so the song uses the same amount of time as the original composition, just in a different way. Slightly different from the concept of rubato, but totally, totally awesome! Next time you listen to a song, see if you can identify where the musicians use rubato, tempo rubato, or both!
You Can Find Music Anywhere
I was wandering around the internet this weekend and found this neat video on Wired.co.uk. Per the article written by Michael Conroy in the September 2009 issue of Wired, Brazilian composer Jarbas Agnelli saw a photo of birds on powerlines that appeared like music on a staff. Agnelli used the positions of the birds as notes and came up with a simple melody.
In the video below (linked directly from Mr. Agnelli’s Vimeo site) is the music he composed with the help of birds.
http://www.vimeo.com/6428069This is a great reminder that music is all around us, and we can find music or an inspiration for a new song anywhere if we just look. Have you been inspired you lately? I would love to about what inspired you, and what you created! You can use the form below to share with us. Lucky composers may have their work featured on our blog!
I can’t wait to hear from you…