A Few Words With Gordon Parks
Q: What inspired you to compose music?A: Well, it is quite strange really; you're going to think I'm crazy. One summer when I was about seven, I was hunting June bugs in our cornfield when I heard something in the cornstalks. The noise got louder and turned into music, and all I could do was just stand there, with my mouth full of mulberries (which I now think are poisonous), confused, looking up at the slow-drifting clouds to see if they were where the music was coming from. The strings, horns and drums were as real to me as the sunlight, and I had a feeling that this music was stuck inside my head, that is it would have been there even if I had no ears- sort of like Beethoven. So, I covered my ears with my hands, and the sounds were still there and they continued until all the clouds moved away and there was nothing above me but the blue sky. Then the music was gone just the same as it had came, and I ran toward the house a little scared but jubilant at the same time. But since no one was around I just went ahead and scooted up on the piano stool and started banging on our Kimball upright-trying to imitate the sounds I had heard. You see, my father was out in the field working and he dropped
When I was nineteen though, I regretted the tricks I had played upon the professor. Earl McCray who was a professor at a white school, several years later. But I am not regretful a single event because everything that has happened in my life has made me who I am. I started playing piano the same day that I heard the music out in the field, and started taking lessons from a Mr. Q: What do you hope readers get out of reading your life story?A: I hope that it reaches all the people that don't know how hard life could be for an African-American in the early-mid 20th century. So no, even though I tried in the end, I never learned to properly write out the music I heard. I was inspired on a trip to Chicago when I was working on the trains. I had a girlfriend, school to worry about staying in, a place to live, and of course, there was the thrill of travel and photography. Q: Did you ever get married or have children?A: Yes. Paul, Minnesota at the time- so I eventually traveled there, but after a rough audition with a W. I got to play a solo at the graduation concert and my sister was the only one that knew I couldn't read a single note. Q: How do you view your life now that you've written it down and looked back at every detail of it?A: I see my life as rough-how I've always seen it- and full of injustices.
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Acceptance Essays
