Music To My Ears

The definition of beauty arises from the recognition of ugliness ...Hu-Nu

A distinguished music student recently advanced from 6-string acoustic guitar to 8-string electric guitar.

With AMPLIFIER.

Since the Academy suffers from a deplorable shortage of dollars and a deafening surplus of decibels, it was a momentary lapse of judgment indeed that drove the Headmaster to approve spending the former to purchase MORE of the latter. But the Headmaster's judgment is a topic for another day.

Hoping to justify this recent expenditure, the Headmaster was pleased to learn from the head of the music department that this student had achieved a milestone accomplishment - at ten years old he was the youngest student ever to have memorized Recuerdos de la Alhambra (Memories of Alhambra), written by Spanish composer Fransisco Tarrega. It is a long piece, lyrically simple, yet technically complex. It begins on a note of melancholy, then progresses to an uplifting tune. According to Wikipedia:

The piece showcases the challenging 'tremolo' guitar technique often performed by advanced classical guitarists. Using this technique, a single melody note is plucked repeatedly by the ring, middle and index fingers in such rapid succession that the result is an illusion of one long, sustained tone. The thumb plays a counter-melody on the bass between melodic attacks. Many who hear this piece initially mistake it for a duet rather than a challenging solo effort.

One can only imagine the self-righteous grin advancing across the Headmaster's face. But just like an amplified note, such a grin is doomed to be short-lived.

At a recent faculty gala, this student was asked to perform the piece. In hindsight, the Headmaster might have paused to settle first on an acceptable definition of the term "perform". You see, this piece requires enormous digital dexterity - even on a composition for six-string guitar the fingers on the left hand are stretched in ways that can only be described as unnatural. And this is while the right hand is simultaneously employing the ring, middle and index fingers in rapid succession to maintain the illusion of one long, sustained tone, and also employing the thumb to maintain a counter-melody on the bass between melodic attacks. Yeah, it's tough enough to explain it, much less PLAY it. Fast. And lyrically.

To put it in simple terms, while the student does a wonderful job with it, playing very fast and pausing only occasionally to get the right fret fingering, it's a performance only a mother could love. Well, or a guitar player. Or maybe even a Headmaster trying to justify the expense of it all.

In a later gathering of attendees, the department head asked someone what he thought of the performance. Stammering in a valiant attempt to combine honesty with tact, he managed only to say that he'd been shocked at the end of the performance to learn that the student wasn't merely tuning his guitar.

It might be that the value of this recent capital expenditure is to help refine the definition of beauty.