There is one thing for Norm, only one thing that he has embraced within since he was ten years old. It is seven musical notes that urge him on to seek more notes like that. A musical pathway that opens up into a canyon of music, ringing to him with the release of beauty sung or played.

The seven notes are the beginning notes of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. When Norm could play the piano, he would play that piece after lunch at home by himself. It calmed and washed all the grade school confusion away. He would walk back to school and often, the neighborhood bully with the odd Croatian name would push him around a bit. Like most bullies, he was afraid of Norm and probably would have made a good friend if Norm had known how to do that. A learned skill for life later for him.

The music that stuns when he hears it or plays it suddenly makes him shiver with delight. “Oh, it’s You!” It draws the inventor of music to share the wavelengths of love with Norm. Feels good.

His favorite author, C.S. Lewis describes ‘the heavens’ filled with planets and stars continuously singing to us. It’s in his classic ‘Out of the Silent Planet’ series. We don’t listen because it’s always there.

It happens unexpectedly which makes it even more enjoyable. Music is the transcendent language. Anyone or anything that has hearing can understand the language. But here isn’t really a series of books or classes that can teach us how to do so. Norm likes the way the music can catch him by surprise. A bird of impossible clarity singing the sun up. A two bit country band starting up a Bob Wills waltz in some forgotten venue. Norm hit the first three notes with double stops and cannot stop hearing them some half a century later. A worship set that ended with a guitar playing harmonics along with soft brushes on the trap drum. There are so many delightful surprises in music that go far beyond any expectation. A lot of them are totally for that moment, mostly teamwork unrehearsed. A ‘band’ sort of wading through a piece they have worked out. Suddenly Someone else sings and plays and the music swirls like a surprise wind. It catches the top gallant of your joyful sail and heels you over with a shout and speed.

‘Music, it calms the savage breast’ when nothing else can. Sunsets, shooting stars, an eclipse or two can be seen or painted and captured. The rush of breath of the stunning scene usually doesn’t come with a photo of these things. The immediacy of music, fading as soon as it’s played. Our minds caught off guard like an unexpected camera flash can do. What a language! Speaking in the tongues of sound.

It is the voice of our creator whispering those notes. He is worshiped for eternity with singing and instruments only found in the mind of a dying musician being presented with his score sheet. “If I could write down those notes! A man just reading that music would never grow ill nor die”1.

So, that’s Norm’s fascination and he suspects there are many others that experience the same thing. Satellite radio? Music of the Sphere’s indeed! It’s pretty good. “Every planet in his proper sphere is moving mankind in harmony and sound” 2.

Jack Gator

1. C.S. Lewis “The great divorce” 2. Henryson {Fables 1659)