Who's on First

There is an old comedy routine about who's on first. No matter where the routine runs, it always comes back to the question, "but who's on first?" I had that kind of conversation today with Dad, but he wasn't trying to be funny, he was trying to get some information, but it wouldn't process and we always ended at the first place we began.

What was frustrating for him, and me, was that this related to music. That was his forte and in some ways still is. I wanted him to transpose a piece of music from B flat to A flat. That is down a step on the scale. He said it would ruin the song by raising the highest note 4 steps. I said it wouldn't and he said, "what wouldn't?" and I said transposing the song, and he said, "what song"? This went on for a while until he understood it wouldn't raise the high note, it would simply bring the two songs I was working with into the same key, the other song already was in A flat. Finally he sat down to do the transposition, I probably could have finished it alone by then, but I wanted to give him something to do.

He had both songs in front of him then looked at me and said, "the song is already in A flat". I know, I said, that is the other song, this is the one you are trasposing. He looked at it and said, "but it is already in B flat". I know I said, but you are going to put it into A flat. "But that will raise it 6 steps", he said. No, I said, it won't. He got a piece of paper and said, "Now which song?" and I showed it to him and he said, "But it isn't in A flat". I know, I said, but you are going to rewrite it into A flat. Then he picked up the other song and said, "But it is already in A flat". That is not the song, I said, putting it aside. This is the song. "But it is in B flat already." I don't want it in B flat, I want it in A flat like the other song. He reached for the other song. "But it is already in A flat."

This went on for a half an hour until he assured me that he understood that I wanted the song in B flat put into A flat. I went into the other room and came back and he hadn't started. "What song do you want done?" I showed him. "But if I put it in A flat it will raise it 2 steps and it won't sound right." No it won't, it will be fine. He got to work and I left. When I got home he proudly showed me that he had copied the song in B flat into B flat on the paper. But you put it in B flat, I said. "But that is what your wife wanted," he said. I asked her to tell him that wasn't what she wanted, and she did and he said, "But it will raise it way above the treble cleff if I put it in A flat." No, it won't, I said. Do you want me to do it, or do you want to do it. "I want to do it". So, he did. An hour later a nearly perfect transposition was complete into A flat, a step lower on the scale.

Who's on first? There are days when nobody is on any of the bases.