Pivoting to Find Your Place in the Fraternity

By Kurt-Alexander Zeller, International President

One of my favorite types of harmonic progression is the chromatic third relationship, which was a trick Schubert loved — and probably is a reason why Schubert is one of my favorite composers to sing! For anyone who is not as much of a music theory geek as I am, an example of a chromatic third modulation would be when one begins in F major, but the tonic F pitch becomes the third of a major triad on D-flat and serves as a pivot pitch for a modulation to D-flat major. D-flat is a key very harmonically remote from the original F major, but the two tonalities have in common the F pitch that pivots from the function of root (do) to that of third (mi). In so doing, the F remains itself but finds a completely new relationship to the current key. It’s magical!

Why am I inserting a music theory lesson into my president’s message? Because our theme this triennium is “Together in Harmony,” and I think the chromatic third modulation is a perfect metaphor for one way we hope to see that theme carried out. One person, like one pitch, cannot truly have harmony — harmony requires togetherness, whether pitches that must be sounded together to produce a harmonious triad or people who must work together to create harmonious relationships. Right now, each of us has a context in Mu Phi Epsilon for our experience and enjoyment of harmony — we’re members of a collegiate chapter or an alumni chapter, or perhaps we’re an affiliate member. We feel rooted in familiar surroundings and know we belong — just like that F as the tonic of F major.

But our circumstances in life change. We graduate, we get a new job, we move to a new city, we retire—we constantly find ourselves in new contexts, even if we are “the same old F” we were before. It can be tempting to think that since our familiar context is no longer there, we can’t find a place for ourselves to continue in Mu Phi Epsilon harmony. Not so! I want to urge us all to “pivot” to find a new context to have a place in Mu Phi Epsilon, much as the F in my example pivots from root to third to find a new home and function in the harmony of a remote key. If you’re leaving your current context — graduating, transferring, moving — find a new place in Mu Phi Epsilon where you can be part of the harmony. Join an alumni chapter. Become an affiliate member. Be like Shania Carden (Beta Alpha) and Chester Perez-Bingham (Beta Alpha), who left their undergraduate chapter and started our newest chapter, Eta Theta at California State University, Long Beach, to find their Mu Phi Epsilon harmony in graduate school. Volunteer as a district director or as a chapter advisor to a chapter that doesn’t have one. No matter how “remote” you may be from where you started, there’s always going to be a place for you to fit into the harmony of Mu Phi Epsilon!