Best of Week: "Love Supreme" - Johnny Coltrane

The first song I heard in this class was Love Supreme by the jazz musician Johnny Coltrane. This piece of literature playing on the speakers surprised me because I thought I was walking into an English class, not a Music class. However, I quickly learned that I as I selected Humanities as my first choice for English my Senior year, I was getting myself into a class that attempted to tap into my human condition. It's first attempt was to coax some kind of emotion out of me as I was exposed to the reptitious tunes of Johnny Coltrane.

The result of the class analyzation of this piece was what encouraged me to select it as the "best of week" for this blog. I enjoyed hearing the opinions and thoughts of the people sitting around me. I was bemused by how people were feeling as they were thrusted into such a situation like mine. I, as many of my other classmates, did not expect to start 3rd period English with some jazz music. It was a change, and I very much liked it. The analyzation of the first movement of this piece if you will led me to believe that Coltrane was trying to invoke some type of human love inside of the listener. I believed that this music was created to make the listener acknowledge what he/she loves most, even if it is a secret. I thought the melody of the saxophone was pieced together to let out the emotion of love, especially the type that people rarely talk about. However vague this may sound like, it should make sense to the reader with some thought. Listening to this song and really trying to let its notes take advantage of you will allow you to realize the things in life that are most important.

Surprisingly, at the end of the class analyzation, Mr. Glass told the class that Coltrane wrote this song as a tribute to his God. He said that Coltrane wanted to write about his unconditional love for whoever he worships. I was hugely surprised because I never would associate these lyrics with religion. Perhaps I think differently because I have different views of divinity. Nevertheless, it is good to understand how music appeals to different listeners, even if the creator himself of the supposed song thinks of it differently than the listener.

No, I will not change my interpretation of Love Supreme because I have learned why Coltrane wrote it. I will continue to think of this piece as the realization of that which is most loved in life, whether it be a thing, a place, a person, or in the case of Johnny Coltrane, God.