Tanmayee Yenumula: Outside Readings (Set 4): Reflective Essay 2.21.11

Music Lessons by Candace Moonshower proved to be a captivating piece filled with rich wording and a strong tone. This reflective essay spoke about the significance of music in the author’s life. With the memories starting in her childhood, the author does well to place a strong emphasis on the tone of the piece right from the very start. This piece speaks about how she developed and fit in with her family and friends and how music fit in with her lifestyle. Moonshower sets her memories up precisely with the tone she is trying to create, an optimistic, sort of reminiscing, and almost sentimental mood.

Moonshower starts out talking about her family history. Music functioned as a glue that held her family together. Everyone in her family had superb musical ability, and music lessons “provided the golden key to the door of sameness – of familial belonging” (Moonshower). This belief stuck with her even as she grew up. Moonshower sets this piece up perfectly by displaying her thoughts throughout each stage of the reflection, as she did when she mentioned the quote about the “golden key”. As she reflects back upon her childhood memories, she uses many element of diction to play up her strong optimistic, yet reminiscing tone. One of the many techniques Moonshower uses is diction, as seen through her choice of elegant, and ornate words in the quote above. 

Moonshower also makes rich use of sensory details through the technique of imagery. As a piece that focuses on music, Music Lessons really allows the reader to hear the “jazzy, big band sounds of Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller, or of Peggy Lee crooning“Don’t Blame Me” with the Dave Barbour Band”. All of these sounds are a comfort due to her deep-rooted love of music. However, Moonshower doesn’t just provide the reader with auditory details, she allows the reader to literally enter her world. The reader is able to see how the family just meshes together perfectly under the influence of music as her “home resounded with music and the conversations of music-lovers and bona fide musicians”. The reader is also able to see and feel the “bloody, bruised and bungling fingers” of Moonshower. Even though she had all of these bad memories with music, due to her inability to rise up to the expectations of her family, the reader still sees Moonshower’s optimism throughout the piece because she kept fighting to excel. For example, she made up for her scarred fingers by learning to read music. This part could have been buried by the excellent imagery created but Moonshower actually uses this to enrich the determination and optimism she felt as she “attacked [her] sheets of music with a concentrated vengeance”. Even through all the negative memories, Moonshower’s emphasis on the rich details allows the optimistic tone of the piece to shine through.

Moonshower also uses plenty of dialogue to add variety to the many literary techniques she used, as well as to keep the reader engrossed in the piece. The use of dialogue also helps enhance the tone of her piece because Moonshower describes the tones of the speakers within the piece, which relates well to the tone she is trying to create. For example, when David is talking to Moonshower, his speaks “with the confident voice of someone for whom music is like breathing”. Candace Moonshower uses the optimism in David’s voice to highlight her own optimistic tone.

Moonshower even uses connections to other works to enhance her tone. For instance, at one point, she referred to her music lessons as “a constant, chafing albatross of a burden that grew heavier and more dreaded each week”. This allows the readers to connect with Samuel Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner where the tone starts of deep and gloomy by soon turns optimistic toward the end, just as Moonshower’s piece does.

All in all, I think that this would be a decent tone to use on the AP. The tone is one that can be easily enhanced through the usage of many various literary techniques, and can have a strong impact on the AP readers.