Have you ever heard a piece of music, knew it by heart, and yet it was the first time you ever heard it?
I know I have, but it always happened in dreams, or the period where I was between sleeping and waking.
The problem is, though, unless I somehow record it right away, it fades from my memory like gossamer strands on the breeze.
My earliest memory of such an occurrence was when I was around maybe 14 or so. I was just falling asleep, and I had this vision of both my parents standing on either side of me while I was playing the piano.
The tune was one I knew well, and yet I had never heard before… or since.
I woke up, and the memory, sadly, faded.
It is true that I used to play a piano when I was nine years old. Well, play isn’t the right word. I did it for a year, and I did not enjoy it, and it certainly wasn’t the high standard of the music I was playing in my vision.
Also around those years, I would hear music playing as I would drift off to sleep. Mostly it was instrumental, though not all the time. It was never music I knew, but I enjoyed hearing it.
It also was not from some other place outside my room. I could only hear it in my mind.
I would call it the music dimension, and I would often try to tune into it as I was falling asleep. I would succeed only some of the time, though.
That, too, eventually stopped. I think I just forgot to try and listen for it.
Another music dream occurred in 1983. It was one of those confused dreams, but someone said the following words to me: Brilliant days. And I replied: Wake up on brilliant days.
The weird thing was that I retained that memory.
I found out soon after that this was the line from a song called Someone, Somewhere in Summertime by Simple Minds, from their album New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
Maybe I had heard before that dream, as the album did come out in 82, even though I didn’t actually own it till later.
However, that particular song became extremely meaningful to me in 1984 (and is still meaningful even today with lines such as ‘Somewhere there is someplace that one million eyes can’t see and somewhere there is someone that can see what I can see’.)
It was just weird to have that line in my dream.
Another incident was when I went to sleep recording a classical piece of music to tape back in 83. I needed to get up around 3 am to drive to a holiday house, and I got some sleep in the area where I kept my music equipment.
Once recorded, the tape would reach its end, and automatically rewind.
When it was time for me to wake up, a very loud burst of music woke me up. I assumed that the recording had just ended, but when I checked, the tape had fully rewound so there was no way that could have occurred.
Another incident was a dream I had just before waking up. It was a very catchy disco song that I knew well in the dream, but when I awoke, I knew I had never heard it before. Sadly, that song faded right away.
I did not have anything more of that nature occur until more recently.
There were two separate dreams where I was dreaming of songs. They were also catchy, and I somehow knew them.
For both times, I was able to retain enough memory and sing it into a recorder. (Though, I honestly cannot sing to save my life.)
I remember both songs, and while they do not actually exist in this world that I’m aware of, they are very well formed and could actually even have hit potential. .
I also spoke of, in a previous blog, about hearing a song all night when I was nine years old, but the different was that I was not asleep for that incident, so I’m not sure it falls into the same category.
That is all I can recall in regards to such incidences. The only other thing I’ve had on the odd occasion was waking up to woman calling my name, even though I was alone in the house.
I think, each time, this occurred, there was a need for me to be up and awake.
I’ve heard of the Music of the Spheres, and while I am a little vague on what it actually is, I wonder if that is where music comes from, and what I was able to hear.
Has anyone else had such experiences?