One of the things that helps me live a moderately less melancholy life is music. Honestly, music has saved my life on occasion by reaching into parts of my spirit I wasn’t sure still lived. It’s CPR for the soul. Whether it’s to listen, play, sing, write, or any combination of the above – it doesn’t matter. If there’s only one song in the world that has ever touched your heart then play it, learn it, know it. Embed it in your brain so that when you’re in a tough situation you can replay it and experience something of wonder, inspiration or joy again. I need only hear the first few bars of Ode to Joy, for instance, and my pulse quickens, and suddenly I am alive again. I find myself renewed in my entirety and ready to face life, come what may, strife and solitude be damned. I do not feel pain, and for an instant I am lifted beyond my self.
I caught the beginning of a wonderful short film on just this subject once. Unfortunately I couldn’t watch the whole thing so I never learned who it was shot by but that doesn’t really matter right now. It begins in the wilderness, where a group of musicians gathers each year for a strange yet awesome ritual. Each musician in turn comes forward and plays a piece of original music, largely improvised. The group sits in total silence for a few minutes after each performance. You sit there, watching them, seeing the longing in each to sustain the sound just a little longer. Eventually you cotton on to what’s happening. The basic idea is that this is a competition which goes on until, in the environment around them, an echo of the music played is heard by the group. This reflects the tension and release, the give and take between us and our world. The doors of perception are flung wide at moments like that, and we, each of us, are granted entrance into a brave new world.
The competition is about the interplay between man and his environment, and the way in which music grounds us in the essence of being on this planet. It’s a way of by-passing the language centres of the brain, and thereby connecting with ourselves and processing emotion in a way wholly different to our usual daily experiences. It is a form of meditative transcendence, a way to experience the sublime. Truly great art helps us to do just that.
Music taps into our emotions at such a primal level because it’s all around us, always. It’s one way we connect with the chaotic systems of our universe. Sound is literally the echoes of what exists, and it is constant. We have never known true silence, except if you’re congenitally deaf and even then you still feel sound and can experience much of the greatness of music through that sense. It’s curious that a large proportion of the female population can’t hear a number of notes on the lower end of the musical spectrum, and it works the other way around in many men. Instead women experience the vibrations of those bass notes, yet they still have the power to move us. This is because it’s the patterns in the music which so attract and compel us.
Our greatest composers, Mozart and Beethoven for example, are so successful at their art over the course of so many centuries because they created music which is mathematically complex and beautifully simple for that fact. It’s what lies underneath that hooks us – there’s something in our minds that gives us an euphoric pleasure in patterns. It’s why the faces which we find most beautiful tend to be those with the greatest degree of natural symmetry (’the golden rule’ as it is known). Audrey Hepburn’s great beauty (I doubt anyone would question she is one of the most divine creatures to have walked this earth) lies in the symmetry of her face: it is the square delineated by the width of her mouth to the bottom of her eye.
Did you know that women with highly symmetrical partners are more than twice as likely to climax during sexual intercourse? (Welcome to CK’s House of Totally Useless Knowledge, btw.) In other words, dear ladies, we get off on the mathematical beauty of patterns. Our brains are just wired that way, though I doubt any of us really needed the hard scientific data to know that sex mostly happens in the mind. So thank your inner geek girl one of these days.
Now, it seems to me that music which combines sound with language has to be the one route via which we can seek to speak to each other most clearly. If I had to name one point at which I feel purely connected with my fellow beings it is when I watch and listen to someone sing. My heart is filled, and it is during those all too brief moments when I have felt the presence of grace in my life. My definition of divinity begins with a song in my heart.
So here’s my question: What is the song which inspires you most, and why? I’ll tell you mine, if you tell me yours.
Music sure is CPR for the soul.
Well, there are lot of songs that inspire me. At the moment, I choose Snow by Red Hot Chili Peppers. Why? It’s just ‘complete’ – musically/lyrically. The song gives me a feeling of purity and content. It’s hard to answer such questions with words.
@Setu – It’s OK. I know the song, and I can intuit why. Snow runs the emotional gamut, too. It is a hard question but really Chili Peppers’ music in general is a great choice.
Twice as likely you say? *books the surgery*
There is a beauty in non-symmetry too of course, let’s not forget the gorgeous Marilyn Monroe’s beauty spot!
My special songs change by my mood,but include: Behind Blue Eyes -The Who or Limp Bizkit, Can You See The Real Me – The Who, Nothing Else Matters – Metallica, Mama Said – Metallica, Break Stuff – Limp Bizkit, Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd, Comedown – Bush, and Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) – Greenday.
~Shiv
Music and the vibes of sound make a wonderfull impact in our pituitary Gland, the mother of the glands on our body, when we stimulate with music is like if you were doing some kind of acupunture in that glad, wich controls pretty much all of the functions in your body, this gland sends the impulse to the nerve system and from there… you know so It is very good to listen to music and even when you sing, that is why some people to meditate and clean the chackras use the sounds like OMMM or else for this same reason. Thank you for stoping by and Congratulations on your blog is very intresting with a diferent and interesting point of view!
Have a great weekend!
it’s really hard for me to say but of course you are absolutely right, and you have coined a phrase, “music is CPR for the soul.”
glenn gould playing bach’s goldberg variations reaches deep inside me. no. deeper and beyond. when i hear it, it is crystal clear to me that gould directly communicates with bach, and in so doing, shows how we can connect and transcend anything. maybe similar to what you describe in that movie.
i can also never cease listening to miles davis. i don’t know how often i’ve heard his version of concierto de aranjuez, but every time i hear it, it again gives me a jolt of beauty.
it’s the same with bob marley. i saw him live once and it was like, well, maybe the way it is for catholics when they see the pope. bob marley to me is deeply engaged, spiritual music. his “redemption soung” is my favourite.
i gave birth accompanied by these three.
I love your insight on music. Different music inspires me to do things. When I want to clean the house I put on Latin music Enrique Iglesia, Santana, Luis Miguel, or old school disco gets me up and moving. If I am really stressed classical or jazz will do, Dave Koz, Pavarotti, and David Sandborn. When I am in really good mood, the standards, Tony Bennet, Nat King Cole so that I can sing along LOUDLY. Love and Romance, Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass, and Barry White, and when I’m zipping down the highway on a summer day, Country music, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood, Trace Atkins. Dance the night away Reggae and Calypso, Shaggy, Fab Five, Sean Paul. I told you I am all over the place.
@Shiv – Yep, mustn’t leave out the rest of us, hey. We can’t all be Audrey but somehow I think we’ll muddle through anyways
Nice mix! Metallica followed by Floyd will do it for me every time. They go together, like thunder and lightning.
@Shine – How intriguing! I’ll have to Google that. Thanks for sharing =)
@isabella – Yes, Gould has depth that reaches way beyond the merely romantic. He struggles with the music and wins. He was a pretty deep guy though so it makes sense. I’ve always wanted to hear his Solitude Trilogy radio documentaries. They’re about isolation, apparently.
V. jealous you’ve seen Bob Marley live, btw.
@Sandra – I’m with you on the singing loudly part. It really is a must – none of this ‘Oh, I only sing in the shower’ business for me!
Eclectic mix but it covers all the necessary bases. I really like Tracy Atkins, for some odd reason since I’m not usually big on country.
You make a very good point: what you need inspiration for defines your choices. I tend to have phases of total adoration of particular artists, followed by periods of cruel abandonment