# Chord Memory Trigger



## earlybard (Sep 4, 2013)

You know that memory trigger that happens when you smell something from your past?

Tonight in church choir rehearsal, we began to sing Parry's I Was Glad. The moment we sang the first "GLaaaad!" (the surprise G major chord).... BOOM! I was immediately transported to May, singing an evensong service downtown for a phenomenal choir. Parry was also on that program, but the star was another. That afternoon we rehearsed the Howells St. Paul Mag & Nunc with so much zeal and austerity we took ourselves by surprise. After releasing the final notes, we wordlessly agreed to take 5 minutes to let it sink in, some of us weeping, others sweating profusely, all beaming.

Anyone else get that? It happens to me with smell, too, but with music it's amazingly vivid.


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## User in F minor (Feb 5, 2014)

Van **** Parks' album _Discover America_, an album I first heard when I was about seven, begins with a sample from an old Calypso track.






Those opening chords pop up at the end of the first movement of Alkan's symphony for solo piano.






The association immediately and completely messes up my brain for a while when I listen to the latter.


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