An Ear For Music?

Caught the word sonata in the papers today and thought : is sonata in the mainstream of vocab already? What's new - after all we are already familiar with what used to be 'difficult' words like deja vu and cliche and collaboration and on.. and on.. And then thought what exactly is sonata?

Almost everyone knows about the Korean 'Winter Sonata' and Hazami's own version of that in Sonata Musim Salju; which coincidently Hazami cant even sing decently when performing live..

Your friendly wikipedia said sonata literally means a piece that's played, as opposed to a piece which is sung. The word came to be used for a principle of composing large scale works, and be applied to most instrumental genres. In the 20th century the term continued to be applied to instrumental works.. You know Wikipedia, it has a lot of details..

And then it lists all the famos sonatas composed by the legendary composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann...

Coincidently, do you know that Mozart started composing at the age of five and can play the piano blind-folded with his hands crossed? whew..

And that Beethoven started to go deaf at 28 although he still compose. If I am not mistaken it was Beethoven who composed 'angry' pieces maybe because of his ailment. I dont really remember and the Wikipedia dont mention that.

A guy I know have an ear for music alright, he can sit at the piano and just play any tune, old or new. His wife said he didnt learn any notes or go to any piano class. At birthday parties and raya gatherings he would play for us beautifully. He also bought electric guitars for his two sons. Last raya the ceiling almost came down on us when the boys plucked (pluck? do you pluck electric guitars?) - anyway when they played their guitars. Luckily no angry neighbors came over with brooms..

*****