Here’s a question we all can ponder!

[Styxx]

You know how from time to time we may mention how we have heard a composition being formed in our heads during activities other than music? Here is an interesting question. First, the stimulation – A student walks up to this morning as states, “I have this song going through my head but I never heard it before!” She is NOT a musician, never was and never had anyone in her family as well. Further questioning her she reveals that is sounds like “one of those orchestras but not Beethoven.” I ask, is it rock, country, rap, and she interjects, “no, no, it’s an orchestra I can hear the strings!”
I am dumbfounded. Can this girl be hearing an orchestrated piece forming in her head?
Can people other than musicians and composers hear songs form in their head as well? Are we all born with this ability yet only dominant in some and dormant in others?
We’ve decided to put her on the Frankenstein table, raise her to through the skylight during a severe lightning storm, and observe the results for later conclusions.
So, ezz possiburl dat we as musinktions are not the homely ones that possess this ability?
Watt do you tinker? I am betting the house that you disagree and start a riot over this post! As a matter of flack, I have no idea who Gary Garritan is and why I have this violin sticking out of my PC with a sticker that reads, “So Low Barbra Streisand Violinies” ?

Time to see the Wizard! The Wizard? Umphk ... I can't take you in ... Not no one not no how! ....

So what do you think? Two words Mr. President ... Flossable Dental.

[SeanHannifin]

We’ve decided to put her on the Frankenstein table, raise her to through the skylight during a severe lightning storm, and observe the results for later conclusions.
"Igor, throw the third switch!"
"Master, not... the third switch!?"

Anyway, if she is not merely remembering something (which she must be at least remembering something if she knows what an orchestra sounds like :D ) then I don't think it would be very surprising for anyone at all to be composing music in their head. Composing in one's head comes quite naturally, I do believe, thus no education is needed, only experience in listening to music. The difficult part (at least for most of us, I believe) is getting what's in the head to sound just as good in reality.

See? I pondered away... :D Ezz goodt, no?

[commalot]

Of course, we should not overlook the possibility that she was a classical composer in a past life................it could happen.

Dave

[Styxx]

Of course, we should not overlook the possibility that she was a classical composer in a past life................it could happen.

Dave Ooooo, I like that possibility a lot. Wait, on second thought that would have made me a .... never mind. (I'll leave that up to me buddy, NMB.) :D

[SeanHannifin]

It would be nice if I had been Mozart...

[Skysaw]

I think more likely she's a composer in this life, but perhaps doesn't know it yet.

[southportJim]

It would be nice if I had been Mozart...


...or Salieri! ;-) j/k

Seriously,
I think it's like a propensity for art in young people (a discusson we've had here before)...I think we're all "pre-wired" for both art and music and then "unlearn it" at some point growing up.

I read something recently that suggested that song may have come before actual language in humans. It wouldn't surprise me at all if she were hearing something original in her head...she knows what an orchestra sounds like, so the synthesis is not that great a leap.

...now if I could just reach back and remember how to do that!
;-)

[CallMeZoot]

I think everybody's a musician (and a composer) simply by virtue of being alive. Some are better than others, of course, and some choose to train for it while others don't bother or don't even know that's an option.

But I'd be willing to be almost everybody makes up songs in the shower, or bangs out a rhythm on the table with their fingers, or makes silly noises when nobody's around. That's composing, as far as I'm concerned--it may not be as conscious or deliberate, but it's composing. You don't have to know the circle of 5ths to arrange sound in a pleasing way, any more than you need to understand photosynthesis to arrange flowers in a pleasing way.

The question is whether we want to follow in a *tradition.* Maybe your student is hearing her own brand new revolutionary form of music in her head, and she needs to find her own way of getting it out. But chances are, she is hearing something that is influenced by things she has heard before--by tradition--and she needs to learn about that tradition before she can write it down. Or she can choose not to. Inspiration doesn't need to be strangled into submission--there's nothing wrong with keeping it in her head.

chris.

[Fabio]

I like the answer " she's a composer, even if she doesn't know yet..."

But to be honest, i think that everybody has some dejà-vue feeling about something not well defined (then it seems new and unknown) but just based on previous experiences un-voluntary synthesis (like dreams frequently are).

But a good composer start his work in the same way! Then:

- She's a potential composer, just because she's human, and she can imagine music.

- we don't know yet if a good one or a very bad one. Only studying you have the answer.:D

No please don't open his brain to find out the music, you know, it's like computer...if you turn it off, you loose the RAM content...:D ;)