The Harmonious Voice of Creation

I have written on the subject of music before. The great joy of being the blog author is that I can write about it again. If you wish I would write about something then, by all means, send an email and tell me what you'd like me to write about. Or email Gretch and tell her you'd like to see her contribute to the blog in ways other than posting her amazing comic. But, as usual, I digress.

In preparing for this blog post (yes, that's right, I actually prepared for this, rather than simply writing off-the-cuff as I so often do), I was searching for quotations about music. I stumbled upon the one used in the post title, by Guiseppe Mazzini, and realised it was the perfect title for my subject.

"Music is the harmonious voice of creation, an echo of the invisible world."

Of the many wonderful things about music, one of the ones that I cherish the most is the vast multitude of expressions of music. As I am sitting here typing, my wife is in one room listening to music being played through iTunes, my father-in-law is sitting near me on the couch playing one of his many flutes. Music is expressed in a multitude of ways. Even the same song can be expressed in hundreds of different ways by a hundred different voices. I do not believe that one expression of music is better than another. Thus, as I have mentioned before, I have an eclectic appreciation of all forms of music: modern, ancient, new age, classic, rock, alternative, country, folk, rap, heavy metal, 80s metal, aboriginal, native, large ensemble, small ensemble, solo, improvisational, religious, secular, and everything else that I have not thought of yet.

I don't only enjoy listening to music, though. I also enjoy performing, joining in that "harmonious voice of creation." I am an ensemble musician. I love singing in choirs or with congregations. I have performed with a variety of instrumental ensembles for almost 60% of my lifetime. For me, there is a great joy in joining together with other voices and, out of the voices of many, creating a single message. The message changes according to the ensemble members, the selection of music, and even the day or time of performance. There are a handful of pieces that I have performed with many different groups, and each performance has been different. I have a pile of cassette tapes and CDs with recordings of many of these performances, and I still enjoy listening to them, and reliving the memories that they represent. To this day, whenever I hear the opening chords of "The Circle of Life" from "The Lion King", I am brought back to the day I stood on the sideline of the 50-yard line in Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois my sophomore year of high school, performing with my high school marching band.

In addition to knowing what I am, I know what I am not. I am not a soloist. Whenever I have a solo, my hands shake, my lungs grow weak, and I tremble in fear. this fear is not of anything specific. I do not fear playing wrong notes - I have been playing far too long to fear that. I am simply gripped by an unknown fear. I have overcome that fear on many occasions, though. So I am not adverse to performing solo. I simply do not enjoy doing so. I am also not an improvisation. I know that this will pain my beloved father-in-law's heart, but it is the truth. I do not dislike improvisation. I simply do not choose to go down that path of music.

The great wonders of the harmonious voice of creation is that it takes all different voices to make it. Thus we need performers of all sorts contributing. As I once heard someone say, in a different setting and about a different topic, but still relevant, a world in which all are the same is a world of boredom. And thus it is that I will continue to encourage my father-in-law to pursue his passion for improvisational flute music while I pursue my passion for ensemble performance.