Upon hearing that we were going to be reading “Chopin,” I immediately thought of Frederic Chopin–the pianist. Obviously, it wasn’t the case that we were reading something from the pianist, but the shared surname between the pianist and the author had a direct association with the term “legato.” Legato is a style of articulation (which was championed by Chopin) in which the individual notes almost overlap over each other. The notes play after each other in a very smooth and connected fashion, hence “legato’s” literal definition of “tied together.” This style contrasts with “staccato” which is a more articulate form of articulation, but is also more disjointed. The first video is an example of legato, while the second video is an example of staccato playing (particularly from 7:06 until the finish).
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/EXS5c6TXhKo" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Fk2kfD5ZKls" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
Let’s return to the idea of “tied together,” though. The idea of “tied together,” while using music as a diving board into a broader pool, makes me think of something fluid. Water attracting water, as an example; you could see this when you look out of a train window and watch the raindrops streak across into the other droplets of water, and when combined, the unified droplet continues streaking across the window and out of sight. Here, we see that water attracts its likeness. It’s a weird and roundabout way of get to this conclusion, but ultimately, we can say something similar in regard to humans and how we choose our support network (particularly our friends and acquaintances). But why?
It’s evident that it’s not too often, if at all, that we willingly choose to hang out with people that we don’t enjoy or have anything in common with. However, unlike water, humans have minds of their own, and are inherently different from each other. What’s the difference between the droplet of water that stays in place and the droplet that streaks across the window? Not much, really. The obvious difference between humans and water is that humans are living things with individualistic thoughts and fundamental differences. Human interaction can’t be explained like chemistry’s explanation of water molecules bonding. Humans align themselves with things of their likeness, but due to inherent differences internally (with regard to mind and personality), it seems that there’s also a more “selfish” side to co-mingling with other humans. It may simply be an instinctual matter of confirming or reaffirming one’s existence by aligning themselves with tangible objects (including people) that resemble them or represent their values. Maybe it’s through confirming one’s existence as an individual as a result of comparing themselves with other individuals (whether similar or different), people realize their own uniqueness. With a sense of individuality, the thought of living for yourself is a realization of freedom. I believe that this was essence the freedom, happiness, and wholeness that Louise Mallard experienced in “The Story of an Hour.”
Darryl Bethay