*Say it!

Information:

• Source: Under the Sun Notebook
• Key: D Major/ B Minor
• Measures: 36
• Parts: Cello and Piano
• Duration: 3:20
• Pages: 3 Pages

“The English language is full of words that are just waiting to be misspelled, and the world is full of sticklers, ready to pounce.” ― Mary Norris, Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen

ALL THE USUAL THINGS
I juſt fell in love wiþ the Engliſh language at ſome point in my early years. I don’t even remember when it ſtarted - it was juſt… ðere. Movies in þe background, pop ſongs I played all the time, claſſes where I learned juſt enough to get by. all Þe uſual things. þen, I ſtarted actually paying attention to it - which, looking back, it may have been a mistake.

Þe more time I ſpent wiþ Engliſh, þe more it ſtarted to feel a little… off. Not broken exactly. Juſt held togeðer wiþ þe linguistic equivalent of duct tape. I’d ſtop in þe middle of a ſentence and think, “wait - why is it ſpelled like þat?” And þe anſwer was never ſatisfying. It was uſually ſomeþing like: “hiſtorically.”

A WATER-DOWN VERSION
Rules exiſt, ſure. But ſo do exceptions. And exceptions to þe exceptions. At ſome point I realized Engliſh isn’t really a ſyſtem -it’s more like a collection of habits þat got out of hand.

I’ve only peeked into its paſt here and ðere, but every now and þen I run into ſomeþing weird-an old ſpelling, a forgotten letter, maybe even a random ȝ juſt hanging around-and honeſtly? I love it. It makes modern Engliſh feel like þe watered-down version of ſomeþing a bit richer.

Take þis letter: “þ”. At firſt I thought it was a typo. A very committed typo. But no - turns out it was doing þe job of “th” þe whole time. Just one letter. One ſound. Simple. Almæſt reasonable for Engliſh. And of courſe, they got rid of it.

NOT ENGLISH, THANK YOU!
At ſome point I decided to write þis and let a few older characters ſlip back in - þ, ð, æ, ȝ - juſt here and ðere. Not really to make a point. Þey juſt feel right. And, if I’m being honeſt, þey look better þan what replaced þem.

Apparently, when printing preſſes showed up in þe 1400s, þey weren’t built for Engliſh. Gutenberg had German and Latin in mind, not whatever Engliſh was doing wiþ its extra elegant letters. So inſtead of adapting þe machine… þe languæge adapted itſelf. Which feels a bit like rearranging your houſe because þe door is too small.

So þ became “th.” Problem ſolved. More or leſs. Þe more I think about it, þe leſs it feels like an improvement and þe more it feels like Engliſh juſt gave up. Not dramatically - juſt like a kind of reſignation. Engliſh feels like þe kind of languæge þat throws away þe useful stuff and keeps þe confusing parts out of spite. People call it “flexible,” which ſounds nice, but I’m not convinced.

CLEAN?, LOGICAL?
If I dare read an old piece of writing I can ſtill ſee þe cracks if I look cloſely. Þey show up in ſpellings, in þe occasional ð or æ, and in words þat clearly didn’t agree to þe changes but got dragged along anyway. Even “niȝt” looks like it’s holding a grudge.

What we have now works _ moſtly. It communicates. But clean? Logical? Not really. And if one of þoſe older letters suddenly came back - þ, ð, æ, maybe even ȝ _ I’ll be the first to embrace them, I wouldn’t even queſtion it. I’d juſt accept it. Welcome back.

Also, Engliſh isn’t my firſt languæge. I consider myſelf fluent, but it never really feels finiſhed. Þere’s always ſomeþing elſe to figure out, ſomeþing elſe to get wrong in a slightly new way.

SAME LANGUAGE DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE
I’ve always been fascinated by how far the English language can stretch. The same set of words and rules can produce something soft, abstract, and almost dreamlike _ or something so direct it feels uncomfortable to read. To explore that contrast, I’m placing a part of two very different song lyrics side by side.

Anywhere Is by Enya.

I walk the maze of moments
But everywhere I turn to
Begins a new beginning
But never finds a finish
I walk to the horizon
And there I find another
It all seems so surprising
And then I find that I know

These lines are used in a way that leans toward atmosphere instead of precision. Words seem chosen for how they feel rather than what they pin down. Nothing is harsh or sharply defined; everything drifts, as if the language itself is trying to dissolve into atmosphere. The language feels less like communication and more like something I have to experience.

Placed against that softness is Did You Do It? by Madonna.

Uh Ho’s in the front for the 1990’s
Walkin’ around showing off their hinies
Wigglin’ they’re jigglin’ they’re swingin’ and flingin’
9-7-0 Yo Ho, your phone’s ringin’
You get a call from your John, you meet him at the mot’
He’s chilling in a pamper and a fur coat

Here, English takes on a completely different character_one that is direct, and rooted in reality rather than abstraction. The tone is confrontational. There’s no ambiguity. No distance. Just direct, uncomfortable clarity. There is no room for misinterpretation. The language is strip down of all softness.

ADJECTIVES
I only recently learned þat adjectives in Engliſh have a specif order _ apparently, it goes something like: opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material, purpose. Which sounds less like a language rule and more like someone tried to organize a closet. Doesn’t it? And the worst part is _ it works.

“A nice small old round red Italian wooden table” sounds completely fine. But the moment it’s change to - “a wooden Italian red round old small nice table” - suddenly feels all wrong. No one explained this to me. No one sat me down and said, “here is þe correct order of adjectives.” My brain just agrees with it.

IT ALL SOUNDS GREEK
It’s kind of weird to think of a languæge as ſomething alive, but Engliſh really does feel þat way. It changes whenever it feels like it, ignores logic, and picks up habits that refuses to drop. Þe changes don’t happen neatly eiðer. Þey juſt… happen. Letters fade, ſounds shift, spellings drift, and it all works.

Some languæges barely change at all. Icelandic gets mentioned a lot for þat. I have never ſtudied it, and I don’t think I ever will, but I imagine it calmly minding its own buſineſs. þere are languages in between - Greek, Japaneſe - where things change, but not ſo much þat everything falls apart. Þey ſtill feel connected to what þey were, which is honestly impreſſive.

ENJOY THE MUSIC
And þen þere’s Latin. Poor Latin. It didn’t juſt change _ it disappeared by ſplitting into Spaniſh, French, Portugueſe, Romanian, Italian… just to mention a few. Same origin, completely different directions. I don’t know. Maybe þat’s juſt what all languages eventually do.

I wrote a piece of music for cello and piano. No words, but still structured in its own way _ patterns, repetition, small changes over time here and there. Not so different from language, just harder to explain. With this piece of music I want to celebrate written words using musical notes. Nothing less, nothing more, I hope you enjoy the music.

Sheet Music Archive

Published Score.
The complete work is available for consultation and download.