My son was born with earworms. That sounds gross, but I’ve mentioned these before and no, they are not physical creatures that inhabit the ears of humans. They are musical interludes that play endlessly in our heads. My son, for as long as I can remember, has had rhythms in his head. He would beat out rhythms on the rail of his crib. He pounded on walls. This was before he was walking. He is the one that lead me back to my discovery of music when we started more formal music classes with him. He has an amazing musical talent, though, he rarely likes to show it but the music is in him. I think he has infected me with his ear worms now. When I first joined the New Horizons Band, I would leave practice with whatever song we were playing looping in my head. It is difficult to stop the earworms. Even if I get distracted, I find that without warning later in the day, I will be humming a melody. Fortunately, the earworm usually dies out before the next day or is replaced by the next song of the day. Recently in band we were sight-reading a medley of classic Italian style songs . Later in the day I also heard some more Italian classics on a television show and between the two exposures that day, I now seem to have picked up a particularly stubborn earworm because Funiculì, Funiculà, has now been looping in my head for the past 3 days. I woke up yesterday morning at 2 am humming the melody. It won’t stop. My son claims that he hates music and that he doesn’t want to play anymore. But as soon as he says it, he starts humming songs. I still see him tapping rhythms on the table when he gets frustrated with homework or if he is nervous before a test. He is my encyclopedia when I hear a movie song but don’t remember which movie it came from, he knows. Music is a part of who he is and I know he doesn’t hate it, it is just something that takes up time from him doing other things he likes. For me, I've grown to "hate" the Funiculì, Funiculà song. It was apparently written as a joke about the construction of the first funicular on Mount Vesuvius and became an instant hit and has been recorded many times since. Fortunately, after three long days I went to a concert and replaced that song with another earworm called Bluegrass Medley arranged and conducted by NHO director Mikaela Vanator and her new middle school group "Ovation Strings".
2 Comments
Judith caspari
11/16/2019 05:36:27 pm
Hey Mikaela I really like your story about earworms.
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Liz
4/14/2020 07:16:07 pm
Oh yeah Judith I remember this from last year.
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AuthorDaniel Zarka Archives
March 2019
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