Musical Instruments Are Also Keys.

You know what I find fascinating about music?

It's largely math.

And I HATE math.

Yet I love music. Music pulls all sorts of illogical, irrational reactions out of me.

Take, for instance, today. I was in Union Square station in NYC during the process of going to the doctor for my post-emergency-room checkup, and the woman from New York Violinist was there playing the Lakme side of Leo Delibes' Flower Duet. It took only 2 measures, and *whoosh* the teargates opened.

I know nothing about the opera. All I know is that this duet will always make me cry, if done properly.

With the right instrument, held in the right hands (or mouth).

This is the key that a voice, a violin, a flute, a trumpet can hold. A musical instrument unlocks the irrational beauty hidden within the logic of math.

Musical instruments open a door into a space that weds the best of both worlds, and leaves the problematic behind.

There is a particularly touching glory in a key that is used to connect two ostensibly opposing worlds. I'd reference Zelazny, but his Amber series does this far more elegantly than I could in a single blog post.