A Note on Music
Black and white notes merge and give birth to a melody. The melody is harmonised and here is music !
What is music ?
It is mere vibrations in the air that the ear captures. It is not noise. It is upliftment of the soul. Sensations that the creativity of words cannot honour, an expression that transcends every promise of beauty, of colour, of sound.
The beauty of music is it’s diversity and it’s unity. The diversity of pianissimo, piano, forte, allegro, vivace ; and the unity brought forth through harmonisation.
So many diverse notes, yet an astounding statement of unity.
When the musician plays his instrument, he uses a diverse array of body parts – his ears and every inch of muscle serves the purpose of making every note he plays a celebration of beauty and unity in diversity. But in order to let the music become protagonist, he steps aside and becomes nothing.
The musician becomes “a hollow reed from which the pith of self has been blown”. He is blinded by the brilliant light of supreme ecstasy. He is deafened to the noise of himself in order to hear the celestial music of unity. He is struck dumb, even as he sings, to allow the voice of the spirit to rise from his throat.
There is music everywhere if we dare to pause to listen. There is music in the water drop as it settles decisively on the hard rock. Music is produced as when we tread mother earth with our bare feet.
The baby’s giggling is a string of happy notes as he expresses his pure joy ! And when i hear a majestic symphony, i lay prostrate and that produces a sound signifying speechlessness and wonder. Music is synonimous of love. Music, as love, is giving and not taking. A lover yearns to express his love to his beloved. So does music in it’s longing to offer itself selflessly. The true lover is generous. The beauty of music is that there are no limits to how much it can give the athirst soul. The lover wastes no time in expressing his emotions and music goes straight to the heart.
How can you separate music from life when the very universe we live in was created with a “big bang”, in A major, perhaps ?
The great philosopher, John Ruskin, says : “Great nations write their autobiography in three manuscripts : the book of their words, the book of their deeds and the book of their art.”
Our words, our deeds and our art are perhaps inseparable because beautiful and creative words become poetry which is the highes form of the use of words. Our deeds, if motivated by the love impulse are transformed into a canvas of colours and forms which future generations can contemplate, and our art is our unique expression of the unfathomable, of eternal life, of the essence of our being.
Ranzie Mensah
