They Come in Dreams

Scenes from the Life of Joachim: Joachim’s Dream by Giotto di Bondone, about 1305. Public Domain.

I had a wonderful conversation with my friend, Sheila Firestone, a composer from Florida, yesterday. She asked me an interesting question. She said, “Grace, do you remember when you first started creating music? I mean, when did you first start hearing music in your head?”

After thinking for a moment, I said, “Oh yeah, it was when I was in the ninth grade. I was having my quiet time, meditating on Scripture, when the curtains of heaven opened up. I could hear a short, orchestral excerpt of strings playing this beautiful melody and harmony. Then it stopped. I thought, “How in the world am I going to be able to begin to write this down?” Then she asked me, “Do you remember what you heard?” I said, “No, I don’t.” She encouraged me, “It’s still in there. You’ll recover it one day, you’ll see.”

Upon further reflection, I’ve realized that I have a memory of musical creativity was when I was 12 years old. I had been accompanying this military chapel Protestant Service and choir for over a year. After one of the choir rehearsals, I accompanied a few members who were looking for special music by singing through a Country Christian gospel book with a church on the front cover. Although I forget the song’s name, I do remember moving from a C Major chord, and my left hand automatically walked down in octaves from C to B to A. I played an A-minor arpeggiated chord in my left hand. It wasn’t written in the music score. But it actually surprised me! I remember being very pleased with that sound and continued to experience walking the bass notes and using my inner ear as a guide.

The next creative story I remember is when I was in the 7th grade. I remember playing in my Junior High School orchestra. (There were four of us in all.). We were faithful in practicing every morning before school started. I remember three names: Mike May, Melissa, and Georgio. Our strings teacher was Mrs. Staton, later, she changed her name to Mrs. Powers, I believe. We played in Festival and I loved playing the violin. Anyways, when I was at home practicing, I started playing one of my favorite Christmas tunes, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” I kept playing it over and over, as fast as my fingers would take me. Then, I went over to our piano and played it with my left and right hands in the Baroque style of J.S. Bach. The melody overlapped, sort of like a round. And what I wrote was a Cannon for this song. It brought me so much joy to write this arrangement.

I just remembered my first piano transcription. We lived on a military base in Colorado. My Dad had a cassette tape with current songs from the ’70s. One particular song caught my ear. It was “Nadia’s Theme.” I kept pressing rewind over and over and over again until I figured out how to play it all on the piano. That was such a satisfying experience. In fact, I can still play that same rendition of “Nadia’s Theme” today.

Fast forward ahead to my 2nd — 5th years as a student at Kansas State University. I was a music major and learned how to play one instrument per section since I was a Music Education major for a semester. This helped me to understand the different instrument timbres and difficulties in playing.

Also, playing in the K-State Orchestra gave me a broad understanding of orchestral literature, Classical composers, and the functions of each section of the orchestra.

As far as creativity goes, it was in my Styles classes at Kansas State University (Go, Wildcats!) that we were required to write several music pieces for each genre. And although it was difficult to follow the rules, I enjoyed the reward that came with the hard work by the final product. I always received “A’s” on my composition assignments. Mr. Hanley Jackson was my composition professor at that time. I would’ve majored in Composition if I thought it were possible to get a job. Then, after college, my creativity seemed to come to a standstill. Although I loved transcribing gospel songs for the Kirchgoens Gospel Choir in Germany, playing for events, and teaching 40 private piano students and 7 violin students, I became burnt out on music.

It wasn’t until after I got married, six years later, that I had a dream with a percussion accompaniment. In my dream, there were all of these red-haired Vikings scaling up a cliff. They were piling on top of each other, using each other as a way to get to the top. It was strange to have my dream accompanied by percussion. Although few and far between, my dreams continued to have music only twice more.

One was in 2009. I got stuck in writing my “Vinnie Ream” first movement to honor the first female sculptress commissioned by the US Congress to sculpt Abraham Lincoln live. I needed to have my composition finished before its presentation that summer. So, I prayed fervently, asking God to give me the next idea.

One morning, before my alarm went off, I heard a motive, a short musical idea, accompanying my dream. I don’t remember what my dream was about, but I got out of bed quickly to figure it out on the piano and write it down on manuscript paper. Then, I incorporated it into my piece. It became the motive for the drummer boys in both the Union and Confederate Armies, preparing their men and a few women for battle. It was like the drums were talking to each other and having a conversation.

I haven’t had a dream with music in it for a while. But, occasionally, I’ll wake up with an arrangement of a hymn in my head. I can actually hear the brass playing it in my head! When I’m driving along the road in my van, I can arrange music or compose new music. It’s a really cool thing, once you think about it.

So, now I’m curious. What are your “creating stories?”

Do you hear melodies and harmonies in your head?

Do you use your DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) to write music?

Or, do you sit at the piano? Or, create songs from singing and playing your guitar? How do YOU write music?