We used to imagine the unsung heroes, the people lost to time who were the first to do something — try a food, form a joke, make a simple tool. Lately I wonder about the first people to sing a major triad, how it might have felt to collectively conjure that magic from within themselves, to behold that new and holy sound and what that must have opened for them.
I remember how it felt to build chords in the choir. But I’d heard music all my life and knew what to expect. Still, it was transcendent to be one of the instruments.
And then I imagine the first person to flat the third, who made the triad minor and knew it wasn’t a mistake, knew it wasn’t evil, and wept just the same.
[2018]
Bill Merklee 