Colors of the Wind

Finally, I've given you the old songs that you were asking for before! I learned this song when I was in grade 7 piano (which was 3 years ago). I'm pretty sure that you've quickly added 7 and 3 and guessed that I was in grade 10 piano. If you did, then you've just won the lucky ticket for guessing right. How much money do you win? Z-E-R-O.




If any of you have watched the movie "Pocahontas," you'll probably recognize this song. I actually learned the song before I saw the movie, but I still learned something anyways. I remember reading the lyrics to this song off the sheet music (I've long since discovered the benefits to learning songs by ear instead of off the sheet music - especially when they're relatively simple songs), and I thought that this part was a little bit backwards:

"Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains,
can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"

We can all hear the "voice" of the wind on a breezy day, and we all know that mountains have colors, even if they're mostly gray and brown. So why aren't the lyrics written that way? Pocahontas must have been thinking differently when she sang this song. (I've noticed in movies that characters will suddenly burst into song and sound exceptionally good for making it up on the spot.) Besides, it wouldn't rhyme properly. The whole rest of the song would have to be rewritten.

In fact, I think that Colors of the Wind is a better title than Colors of the Mountains. Everyone knows that mountains have colors. It seems like a lot better use of time to compose a chorale concerning the clouded concept of colors in a current of air, than to write a song about the color of rocks. (By the way, I used a thesaurus to find all those C- words. I'm not that good at improvising yet.)

Now, I hope you're ready to switch your information intake mode to listening instead of reading.