Music & Song

“Music,” Plato wrote long ago, “is a moral law.  It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”  Music is needed now in the midst of our present isolation perhaps more than it has ever been needed.  Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Shows Must Go On” streaming on the YouTube channel and Webber’s  piano recitals from his home (YouTube) during this pandemic are attempts to meet our insatiable need for music.  With Teresa Brewer I sing “So, put another nickel in, In the nickelodeon, All I want is lovin’ you, and music, music, music…C’mon everybody, Put some nickels in, And keep that old  nickelodeon playing, Music, music, music.”

Music speaks in and of itself, but when words are added to it—when a song is born—the majesty of the music and the power of the words can become a profound message.  Christian hymns speak a message that have touched the souls of many.  Songs,  religious or secular, speak to us in ways no other form of communication seems able to do. Who is not deeply touched by Whittier’s hymn:  “Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways, re-clothe us in our rightful mind…” or in Les Miserables’ “Do you hear the people sing? Singing the songs of angry men? It is the music of the people who will not be slaves again, When the beating of your heart, Echoes the beating of the drums, There is a life about to start, When tomorrow comes.”

Leonardo da Vinci wrote, “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.”  What then of music—of song?  “If I were not a physicist,” said Einstein, “I would probably be a musician.  I often think in music. I see my life in terms of music.”  Music and song have shaped our lives more than we know and, with Einstein, we often think in music (a song) and often see our lives in terms of music and song.  Music and song, suggested Beethoven, is “a higher revelation than wisdom and philosophy” (and I would add, a higher revelation than theology and psychology).  

Johnny Cash wrote the lyrics and sang “Singer of Songs.” The lyrics say, better than Plato and Einstein and Beethoven what music and song can do.

I’m not a savior, and I’m not a saint.

The man with the answers I certainly ain’t

I wouldn’t tell you what’s right or what’s wrong.

I’m just a singer of songs.

But I can take you for a walk along a little country stream.

I can make you see through lovers’ eyes and understand their dreams.

I can help you hear a baby’s laugh and feel the joy it brings.

Yes, I can do it with the songs I sing.

I’m not a prophet, and I’m not a priest.

I’m not a wise man who’s come from the East.

I’m just a singer of songs.

Music and song “gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything” even today in this time of  isolation, trouble and woe.

“Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes.
 "A magic beyond all we do here!” 
(J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone)