I have always liked to use some musical links in my writing. Many of my writings deal with songs that have inspired me over the years. (Where Have All My Young Friends Gone?) A few years ago, I started wondering what I could learn from music that might infuse my writing with more elegance and passion. I tried my hand at a “musical composition.” I am not sure that it came out very well but if you are interested, you can read my piece at: ON WRITING, MUSIC, CHOREOGRAPHY, THE SEASONS AND LOVE.
Recently, in our writing class, I gave my students the assignment to come up with a 100 word writing piece that used some elements of music in their writing or that writes about the use of music in writing. It was an odd assignment made more difficult because my instructions were pretty vague. The following week students brought in their writings and shared them in class.
The discussion that accompanied our readings was very helpful. Wilma, a writer in the class, found a good article that illustrated very well what I had been trying to say and do in terms of using music to provide creativity or at least another perspective to our writing. I am adding links to Wilma’s article which was in Medium and another that I found while perusing Medium.
The first article is by Mark Benis and is titled: “Is Writing Stories so Different from Writing Music?”
What does writing have to do with making love? Can the changing of the seasons really be compared to an overture? What if on some primal level, we all live by an unseen rhythmic law? This law says that there is fundamentally no difference between making love and writing or between a brilliant piece of choreography and the changing seasons. Does the rhythm of the universe expect a form of symmetry to all of life? A regulated succession of strong and weak elements or of opposite and contrasting conditions becomes the master of all we do. The seasons come and go. The music ebbs and flows. Our love is gentle, passionate, sublime and tired. Mornings, afternoons, evenings and nights fuse with the spring and summer and fall and winter of our lives. The harsh gales of November echo in the overtures of Stravinsky and Beethoven. All things are one say the mystics. Is my writing one with all things? Can I form, norm, storm and perform even with mere words.
Adagio
Far be it for me to confuse philosophy with art. Greater men than I have said that there is a unity to life. We travel down our different paths often blind to the journeys of others who walk side by side with us: This one a carpenter, this one a computer scientist, this one a teacher, this one an artist and this one a hero. If I were a rich man, lord who made the lion and the lamb, would it really spoil your cosmic plan if I were a wealthy man? We are all dust in the wind but our rhythms echo down the halls of time. The most unforgettable and amazing repetitions will resonate as long as humans walk the earth. Coded in the numerous ways we have of capturing the rhythm of our lives: Some dynamic, some peaceful, some violent and some sad. We write our lyrics, pen our verses, create our stanzas and design our choreography all guided by the unseen law of rhythm. Now we are hard, then we are soft. Now we roar and now we snore.
Scherzo
Love is kind, love is considerate, love is not selfish. The waltz was a creation of times when love was more restrained. This torrent of mine was supplanted, extending my being, your challenge. The Tango alternates patterns of space and closeness with syncopated rhythms of violence and passion. Love me tender, love me sweet, never let me go. Rock and Roll ushered in a wild abandonment of morality in the face of conspicuous sexuality. The rhythm of music often exhibits striking harmonies with the rhythm of our love lives. Can I be soft and gentle like a warm breeze but also wild and unrestrained like in the movies? What if I made love to the William Tell overture or would Shakira’s lyrics work better:
Baby I would climb the Andes solely
To count the freckles on your body
Never could imagine there were only
Too many ways to love somebody
Is it enough to alternate patterns of tenderness with patterns of inhibition? Shall I open with an allegro, then move into an adagio, followed by a scherzo and conclude with a rondo? Who would expect love to end without a crescendo? Should my love making follow the classical style or should it be more like a jazz piece?
Rondo
Whether goes my writing. I have written this in four parts to reflect my cosmic view of the rhythm of life. We form and norm and storm and then perform. Spring is the opening that brings fresh growth to our world before the bloom of summer. Summer brings the maturity and ripeness of life. Fall brings the storms and winds that signify our frailty and insignificance to the universe. Winter ends our symphony with the closure and solace that our work is done and our day is over. Our life, our work, our art, our thoughts all finished but with a hope to be reborn perhaps by someone who sees a need to continue the rhythms that we have started. Not really finality, but continuations that started before us, and will continue long after our memorials are put up. Perhaps, my headstone will have four verses or stanzas or paragraphs or perhaps like the newest greeting cards, you will be able to press a button on my tombstone and you will see a picture of me singing and dancing to a four part harmony.
Time For Questions:
Does music teach you anything about writing? Does music speak to you? Can writing be like a symphony? How do you hear music? Does it speak to you like a good poem or a good verse? What is your favorite kind of writing? Do you ever think that the writing you enjoy could be like music? What would it take to transform the music in your life into writing or the writing in your life into music?
What would life be without the things that help us to appreciate it? I listen to a superb singer and think how fantastic it is to be able to have this kind of talent in the world. I visit an art gallery and look at the magnificent paintings and think about all the people that have created works of art which beautify my life. I journey to a library to find a good book to read and I am inundated with literature that will open vast new horizons for me intellectually and emotionally. I am sometimes ashamed that I am not grateful enough for the many appreciations that life gives me.
I started thinking a few days ago that the issue of appreciation would make a good subject for a blog. I soon realized that the subject would be good for several blogs. Thus, I have decided to write about the greatest appreciations in my life. Of course, life itself is a given as the greatest appreciation of all, so I will skip it for now. There are hundreds of things that I can appreciate. I will limit my list to the top seven things that I am grateful for or that I appreciate on an almost daily basis. I will try cover each of these in my next blogs.
Music
Art
Literature
Travel/Food
Friends/Family
Health/Fitness
Peace
Music: Something to Appreciate
This week I will discuss the joys and happiness that I find in music. Karen, my wife is a musician. I am unfortunately not among the musically gifted. I am left to be the audience for Karen and other people with the talent to perform. I have hundreds of artists all over the world that I admire and listen to. Many people have a steady diet of music from a particular genre. I consider myself fortunate to have quite catholic tastes when it comes to music.
I love opera, country, blue grass, gospel, classical, rock, pop, blues, jazz, folk, as well as music from almost every country in the world. Have you ever listened to Enka music from Japan or Fado music from Portugal? There are hundreds of styles of music all over the world. Increasingly I find what might be called fusion music that blends a multitude of styles.
One currently popular group is called the Hu. They are a rock band from Mongolia. They use traditional Mongolian instrumentation, including the Morin khuur, Tovshuur and Mongolian throat singing with a rock beat. They say that they are inspired by the Hunnu, an ancient Turkic/Mongol empire. I discovered them on YouTube and liked them so much I purchased one of their albums. I listened to it every day for a few weeks. I had never heard anything like it before.
Yesterday on NPR they had a music session with the noted African American operatic baritone Will Liverman. It was an interesting conversation. There has been a systematic exclusion of information concerning Black singers and composers in the realm of classical music. Mr. Liverman talked about his upbringing and how surprised his parents were that he became interested in opera and classical music. He pursued his interests and has become one of the great operatic singers of our time. Will observed that many great Black composers were virtually unknown to the public and even in the music world. He decided to remedy this with an album of songs by Black composers. You can find his album on Amazon and many of Mr. Liverman’s songs on YouTube.
The music world is full of variety, mysteries, contradictions, challenges, and respite from a world all too often full of dreary news and mayhem. I have briefly touched on some of the variety in the music world, but what are the mysteries? Well consider the talent that it takes to become a good musician. Many people think that musicians are simply born with the talent. A little knowledge of musicians will soon show you that music is a combination of talent and hard work. Few of us will ever know if we could have been a great musician because most of us do not have the discipline to put the effort into music. This includes me as well. I am amazed at the practicing that Karen does each week.
Karen performing with the Tucson Dulcimer Ensemble
Karen has taken dozens of classes to help develop her skills. There never seems to be a time when she will simply quit and say, “I have become good enough.” She is always working and striving to become better. Every year she develops more skills and then challenges herself with more difficult pieces, not to mention adding more instruments to her repertoire. And here is the mystery. Where do these people get the energy and courage to keep on challenging themselves? Most of us would rather listen to music. We marvel at the fantastic talent that is in the music world, but we seldom understand the practice, discipline and hard work that is involved. I gasp in amazement at a man like Jake Shimabukuro whose fingers move over the ukulele faster than I can see. I cannot comprehend pianists that can play an entire Beethoven symphony without looking at a music sheet. These are all mysteries to me.
What of contradictions? The music world is full of contradictions. Talented players and singers who never seem to achieve the stardom they deserve. One-hit-wonders who can create a dynamic song that tops the charts but are never heard from again. Five-year-old wunderkinds who display abilities that defy logic. Singers who develop followers that worship the ground they walk on. Performers who last a few years, disappear for many years, and then make startling comebacks. Singers who are still in the music business in their eighties. Artists who seem to have little talent but make tons of money. The music world is full of contradictions.
What of the challenges I refer to? For a musician, the world is one giant challenge. Can you imagine getting up in front of 100,000 people or more to sing the national anthem? Can you imagine facing the expectations of an audience that has paid a minimum of 100 dollars a seat to hear you perform and some may have paid thousands to hear you perform? Could you handle the pressure? Can you imagine a road tour? Leaving your home for a year to travel the world and play in dozens of different venues in front of many different audiences. I get anxious not sleeping in my own bed for one night. I think the challenges also show up in the chaotic drug filled life that we often see in some musicians. Stars like Elvis, Michael Jackson, Prince, and hundreds of other great musicians who met an early and untimely death. Is it any wonder? The challenges may be too much for anyone.
Finally for me, the respite that music brings to my life could not be purchased for a million dollars. It is said that “Music soothes the savage beast.” Music takes the stress out of my life. Music is like meditating. It is often better than eating or sleeping. I can watch an Andrea Bocelli performance, and everything is okay with the world. Music helps me to forget the vicious daily news, the angry divisive politicians insulting each other, the legal eagles trying to entice me to sue someone, the maniacs on the road in a hurry to go nowhere. I can forget the dreams I had that never materialized as I listen to Rhiannon Giddens sing, “Wayfaring Stranger” or Miley Cyrus sing, “A Man of Constant Sorrow” or Bob Dylan sing, “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall.”
I fear I have not even begun to explain the joys, beauty and wonders that music can bring into our lives. The subject is so deep and wide, that my short missive here does not even begin to do it justice. My goal is to inspire and entice you to find more time for music in your life. It is truly one of the great appreciations that life brings us. Sean Combs said that “A life without passion is unforgivable.” It is even truer that a “life without music is a terrible shame.’
Next week I will talk about Art and what it can do to help us appreciate life more.
Aging Capriciously 