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Monday, May 2, 2011

Thoughts on Music

I was trying to describe to someone in an email my passion for music and some of my thoughts on sacred choral music.  I was encouraged to post it here, and so I shall.  While I will rarely discuss politics or religion with friends, family, or even you here on my blog...let it be said that I am a very spiritual person with a belief system that means something to me, and I don't particularly care if anyone else agrees or disagrees.  This particular rant has to do with how I believe that the gift of being able to recognize music's greatness and decipher it's emotional code is one of the greatest gifts we've been given.
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I love choral music. I approach my writing for instruments from a choral perspective. While most of the choral music I listen to is by masters who were almost exclusively Christian and therefore settings of Christian texts and Masses, Bernstein did as good a job of anyone I've ever heard of setting a Hebrew text to music so sublime it fills me with intense emotion.


Music transcends religion, in my opinion...but at the same time, it IS religion. It reduces all of us to the lowest common denominator: creatures created by God who are not all equal in our ability to create music like this, but all blessed enough to be able to recognize its greatness.

To me, listening to the words and understanding what it is that they're singing about isn't necessarily the point. It's certainly doesn't matter whether or not I even agree with the text. The important thing is that the people who wrote the music and wrote the words were so moved to do so and believed so vehemently in it that they were inspired to create a beauty that, as I said, transcends what they're even writing about.

The ability to communicate emotion can only be truly and purely accomplished through music and art. What's sad is that so many people live their entire lives without opening their heart and allowing themselves to experience music like this and connect with their fellow man on an emotional and sacred level. When man or woman refuse to feel and block emotion, they cease to be what they were destined to be...the greatest of God's creations.
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