Note: I'll surprise you with the music links. Click and hear/see examples of what I'm talking about! I didn't make any of these videos - I'm just sharing! So if they're not the official music video or a clip, I don't claim to know what's going on in them!
I'll just start off by saying that I'm no musician. I played flute for about two years in middle school, and I can play the little practice songs they used to teach us, but I couldn't play in an orchestra or anything. But I adore music.
One of the big reasons I love music is because it can turn just about anything you do into a dance. It can turn driving into a dance. Without music, washing dishes is my least favorite chore, but when I start thinking about listening to music while I wash dishes, I can't wait to get started! When I listen to music at work, I dance in my chair. I'm sure I look so very foolish, but I really can't help it. Music turns my life into a dance. Especially
this song - I just really can't help it!
One of my favorite things is when
music gets personal. When you hear something in a song that just made that song FOR YOU.
Taylor Swift's song "Back to December" strikes a chord (ba-dum-CHING) within me because I've experienced that before. It makes me so sad and it's like she looked at my life and wrote that song. Almost to the months, with the flowers, and motivations and everything.
Another reason I love music is because the idea describes so many things in life. There's a point in every song that I can't help but call "the great part" and I don't mean "great" as in "That's great!" like most people use it today. I mean when it puts this extremely tangible feeling of tallness and honor and greatness inside your chest cavity, like you're heart is actually expanding and you lose your breath. You feel like you can do and be anything at that moment. Usually when music hits the great part of a song, I get this feeling like I'm flying - as if I'm copying the music's actions when it just goes up and up and there's no limit to how high it will take you and I as listeners.
This song has a wonderful "great part" - I hope you can hear it!
Anyway, that feeling comes with other things too. It's the delicious smell wafting 'round your nose (cookies baking, flowers growing, a stream, a fire, a particular person maybe,
something that reminds you of your childhood or being home, for example). The one that when it's gone you walk around like a bloodhound trying to find it again for just one more sweet whiff. It's your nose experiencing music.
Beautiful music has a look too.
It's a graceful curve. The people in this video have music following them around - I'm so jealous! Anyway, that's why you so often see music portrayed like this:
This graphic above clearly portrays fun and bouncy music. Probably little kids' music.
This one, now, is probably some
girly love song (yes there are three videos there) because of the butterflies.
But when I hear music, I think of things like this: that
reach out and brush past your face or arm, inviting,
enticing you to jump in and just become part of the
grace and delicacy. of course, other things can look like music. When you can see your breath on a cold day, or snow falling, or and even things like dresses and shoes (yes, men's shoes too!). The
human silhouette is a perfect example.
I've never been one to subscribe to "I need to change my looks to be prettier", but I've always wanted wavy or curly hair so I'd feel like I had music around my face all day. (I don't know who this woman is, but she was not a celebrity dressed fairly modestly. And she's pretty).
It also encompasses
the feeling on your skin when the wind blows - a cool breeze on a sunny day, or a light breeze in spring or fall. It's when something is so perfect all by itself and you are providentially there to experience it. Music is like that as well. As if it's bigger than you and is
picking you up and cradling you in its arms and rocking you to sleep... and you're just swaying because it's what the music is doing to you.
And the best part is that the "great feeling" that comes with the great part of music comes with so many other experiences, like a first kiss (or any kiss), or getting something achieved, or being in awe.
Romance is full of the grace that embodies music. Sometimes I wish I had a personal minstrel - someone who would just follow me around all day singing to me. I like to imagine that's the real purpose of American Idol - tryouts to see who is good enough to sing for me. : D
In a bevy of quotes about music, it is called
the language of the soul or spirit,
how God talks to us,
the language of emotion,
a gift from God,
the art of Heaven,
poetry of the air,
wine,
medicine,
universal language,
love,
moonlight,
friend.
J. R. R. Tolkien in the Silmarillion
uses music to create the entire Middle-Earth. The angels of Tolkien's world, the Ainur, sing the
history of Middle-Earth before it exists, in
a melody that was supplied by a
God-figure, Eru (yes, it sounds strange if all you're used to is
the Lord of the Rings, but it's a beautiful story). [Note: All of these links are to Lord of the Rings soundtrack songs that have nothing to do with the Music of the Ainur. It was the MOST appropriate place for these links]
In the Bible, one sees the Israelites
lifting up praises to God in song all the time. Sometimes the Bible records their songs and sometimes not. The book of Psalms is a book of songs sung to the Lord. Music, while it may not be the language, or the sole language, of God, definitely has something to do with holiness, divinity, purity and sacred.
"But," you may say, "Not all music is pretty and soft and graceful sounding. There's music out there that can sound like rocks scratching blackboards!" I would tell you that though something may not be pretty to your ears, you still called it music. Of all the people quoted in the entire world, apparently Confucius said it best:
"Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without."
And where a melody fails to bring feeling to a song, the words will pick it right up. My husband likes Pink Floyd (compared to me, he LOVES them). I don't care for their music, but he has a talent for hooking me on
a new type of music with just one song. Basically, not everyone likes country or classical or rock or screaming music. People pick and choose what they enjoy. Some people are narrow-minded and some people really don't have a preference. But there's a lot more to music than just the sounds.
Now, I'm going to go dance my way through the dishes! *Zip-a-dee-doo-dah! Zip-a-dee-ay!*
