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Brahms ' First Symphony, An Angelic Alliance Of Flutes Essay

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In Johannes Brahms’ first symphony, an angelic alliance of flutes hypnotizes the audience with delicate notes that form a scenic melody. In the distance, I am blowing until my face turns blue into a large goofy instrument that hardly anyone notices. When I picked up the tuba during my junior year of high school, I quickly became accustomed to less glamorous musical parts, long notes of loosely buzzing lips, and pages of paramount silence. Worst of all, playing the tuba never quite made me a “ladies’ man.” Yet my short-lived stint as a tubist sparked an appreciation in me for the humble instrument’s significance. Were it not for the deep rumbling of the tubas which mirror the melody step-for-step, coloring the piece to a new depth, Brahms’ rich masterpiece would undeservingly sound hollow.

My relationship with technology greatly parallels my experience in the band room.

In my first two years at Howard University, I lived among flutes in Washington D.C.’s technology scene, attending hackathons and technology meet-ups. Armed with a spoonful of programming knowledge and a wave of enthusiasm, I seized every opportunity to grow through the people I encountered. Although I learned plenty from them about powerful tools, what I took away as a part of me was their reasons for loving tech. A desire to reduce traffic accidents in D.C.; a burning passion to help former inmates re-enter society; an urgent need for police accountability in minority neighborhoods. The following year, I

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