Sonnymoon for Two

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a little jazz standard which is called "Sonnymoon for Two." It was composed by the saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who took the opportunity to name this song after himself. Maybe he also wanted to say that it's better to be together than alone. I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
(Can't see an audio player? It might not work if you're viewing this in an email client. If you are on teawithliya.blogspot.ca, you may need to try a different browser.)



Aren't you going to remember the melody of a song the first time you hear it? Aren't you going to think that's more important than other pieces of the song? And aren't you more likely to remember the melody if there's some repetition in it?

In fact, aren't you -- I should start my next sentence differently, because now you've probably noticed the long line of "Aren't you's" I'm creating. You might never have paid attention to the beginnings of the sentences I'm writing if I hadn't repeated them. 

But why did you bring all of this up?

Actually, I didn't bring it up. I haven't been bringing anything up your screen - you're the one scrolling! But I know what you're trying to ask. It turns out that this was the same technique that Sonny Rollins used in this song. A small melody is repeated 3 times (or maybe 6, depending on what recording you listen to). If it was only used once throughout the whole song, you might not remember it. 

Even though a saxophone can only play one note at a time, this one is sitting on top of an interesting piece of sheet music. It has multiple notes to be played at the same time.

Of course, if a melody was played on its own that was different from everything else, then it sure would be noticeable. The thing that doesn't attract attention is playing long lines of notes without putting any thought into them - and that definitely isn't the kind of writing that made the songs we're still listening to today.

Now if you take a look at the title, it also has something to say about being alone. It probably came from the phrase "honeymoon for two," which, of course, is made for two, not just for one. Perhaps Sonny was thinking about two people sitting together at a table, with music playing in the background...

Don't you know that COVID exists? Imagine sitting together at a table.

Well, there wasn't COVID in 1957. You could actually experience the value of being together... but, 1957 isn't now. Maybe the long lines of notes that would make a melody sound commonplace could be compared to a crowd of people that aren't very aware of each other. Sure, there's a lot of them, but what's connecting them together?

Being alone isn't going to help you feel satisfied, and it isn't going to help you get a lot of things done in little time. Maybe you need two people sitting at a table, or three, like the melody that was repeated. If you have people committed to staying together, they can be more powerful than you think.

Make sure you put a teacup on that table, too. It might just help you feel a little bit less alone. But, there's one thing you have to do first, and that's to...

Keep filling your teacup with music!
~Liya