Márta É. Szabó: My shining darkness

It was the magic of music that lead me to discover the world. Sounds and melodies have made it beautiful and ’visible’ for me.
I was three when settled with my the family on a beach in the Gulf of Mexico, I suddenly set off in the direction of THE SOUND. I was looking for it in the waves, attracted to it, like Odysseus had been to the voice of the Sirens. My mother ran after me in a panic, and brought me back to the beach. I’d been trying to find a sound that was unlike any other, that wonderful murmur created by the dance of the waves. In the afternoons I made scenes when it was time to go home, because I wanted to take the ocean with me. I only gave in when my parents had the idea of recording the sound of the waves on my small tape recorder. Then, totally enchanted, I would listen to that magic for days on end.
Little by little I totally fell in love with sounds and melodies. That might have been the reason why I started to speak quite late. I used just one or two of the simplest words. For me the dog and the train in Boston were one and the same thing, both described by me with a long whining ’oo’ sound. It was well before I began speaking that my favorite melody was the Marseilles. I have no idea where I had heard it or why I had found it so adorable, but I sang it and played it on grandpa’s old piano as soon as I found a way to hammer away on its keys. It soon became my favourite toy. Later, when I became acquainted with Chopin’s waltzes, even
the birds sang Chopin to me. Nothing else interested me except the myriad sounds of the piano. When I could recognise notes better, I translated the noises into music. The tram, for example, was braking in F-sharp, and I even played the train’s whistle on the piano. Well, this is how it all began, and if you are interested in what followed, the road that took me to practically all the prestigious concert halls in the world, then read my story as told by my mother.

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