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frowned at his poor English and the statement that came with it,
but I contained my confusion and continued to drink my Italian
coffee. With the television blaring in the background and my Nono
engrossed in a deplorable Italian soap opera, I left his house. I got
back into my Jeep and began the journey back to my flat.
‘These skyscrapers would have been half the height that they are
now when Nono arrived here’, I thought as I drove back through
the city. I set my eyes upon one skyscraper in particular and thought
about the difference between the view from the second floor of that
building as oppose from the view from the twentieth floor.
Perspective changes everything. The twentieth floor and the second
floor are facing the same busy street, but the shimmering sun looks
brighter and the earth looks smaller from up higher. The immense
glow of the sun almost blinded me as I pulled into my driveway.
I rushed upstairs and played it again, to listen out for what I had
done wrong. The melancholy minor piano chords paired with the
sombre strings elicited feelings of sorrow and hardship, after all
that was the heart and soul of the song. If Nono didn’t like the song,
perhaps it could have been the melancholic ambience that pervaded
the composition that discouraged him. The song was due in two
days, and I knew I couldn’t hand in a song that Nono disliked. I
kept the strings score the same, but altered the central chords from
minor to major. I rose and looked outside my window. I again
pondered how different the view from my window was in
comparison to my view from the ground floor. On the ground floor
the dark trees canopied over my head, but frommy window, I could
see above the trees and I could see the city in the distance.
Perspective changes everything.
‘
Minor Major
11