The Song of our Lives

We are wired for music. You may have a sort of musical play list that runs constantly at or just below your conscious awareness. I do. I can summon to my mind many songs as if I am listening to them on my stereo. Oddly, the melody tends to be quite vivid, but the lyrics are a different story. I have always struggled to remember lyrics. Are the music and the lyrics stored in different parts of the brain- not together. Curious...?

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Like many talents, the ability to make music on some level is nearly universal, sometimes it is simply not recognized or developed. Every culture has music that is recognized by its inhabitants. Our own culture produces it in a vast and seemingly endless array of styles that reflect the full spectrum of the human condition.

 

It almost always carries emotional content. It is the case that both- music triggers emotions and that emotions make us think of music. It is woven into the deepest parts of our being, and it has magical and spiritual qualities that enhance the way we experience the world and each other.

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Music can help share intense and even ecstatic experiences together in tribal, cultural and spiritual settings. Most of us have been to or participated in festivals, concerts, or church services that have been transformative. It is powerful to be part of a large group having a communal spiritual or emotional experience.

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In college I was a member of the Rutgers Glee Club. The group was selective and had many serious musicians. In the winter of my sophomore year we sang a concert at a Benedictine Abbey in Morristown New Jersey. We sang a Carl Orff rendering of a Gregorian chant in Latin that was mostly about how God could crush our bones like they were nothing- dramatic, intense and hypnotic.

 

In a building with incredible acoustics, we sang the piece, and even as we were performing, I could sense the hair on the back of my neck standing up along with my 50 or so fellow members and apparently that of the entire audience. When we finished there was silence. It was almost like mass hypnosis. For what seemed like an eternity, not a sound.

 

And then the audience erupted, like none I have heard or seen before or since. It was primal reaction to a profound communal experience that was ecstatic and humbling. It felt as though we had touched God.

 

Music is one of the most important ways in which we encounter the divine and the sacred. There are composers and performers who tap into emotions so profound and universal that they are understood across culture and time while remaining transcendent. Music is the universal language.

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On one hand, it binds us together, and on the other, it helps to define our individual and communal perception of life. Each of us associates certain songs or compositions with personal experiences. I have been obsessed with a variety of pieces over time that helped me to understand my place in the universe, and sometimes to simply

endure challenges, or hardships. It can have specific associations with love, joy, anger, faith, fear, and more...

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William Congreve wrote that, “Music has charms to soothe the savage beast.” In fact, it is so connected to our emotions that it can incite us to violence or to peace. It is used to set a tone or a theme for social and religious events of every stripe. It has been used to encourage us to stand for change and to hold tight to tradition.

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Music goes beyond human experience. Birds, whales, wolves, and insects use it to communicate warnings, territoriality and to locate potential mates or other groups or individuals of their species. This is some indication that music goes all the way back to our most primitive ancestors. We have been making it since we have had self-awareness, and it has shaped life for over a billion years- Long before man’s song was heard.

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Embrace the song of your life. It gives complexity, and subtlety, and color to our past, present and future. This song is ever changing, showing us darkness, light and every shade and hue that can be imagined.

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Every piece performed has meaning to the writer, performer, and the audience. The experience is not necessarily the same for everyone. Our response individually and collectively will change to a piece of music over time and even every time we listen to a song- some have a tribal reaction while others have a deeply personal experience.

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Music brings us to the edge of the mystery, we marvel at its ability to transport, transform, and inform us. Through it we might tell our stories, expose our fear, or express our hope. Beneath it all, many of us find a connection to God.

 

I have truly felt the power of creation through musical experiences, as a part of my journey to understand truth, beauty, and love, it has given me wonder and awe at its ability to help me more deeply experience emotion and the divine.