To those of you out there, who may or may not be celebrating Christmas this year, at least I hope that music is part of your season of celebration.
What got me thinking about all this was that I received a wonderful present for Christmas from my son, a book entitled The Music Instinct, by Philip Ball, in which he describes how our brains behave in response to music, and how we move and sway to music, how we emote to music, and how ALL human cultures have music. But what he has trouble with is trying to find the (historic and otherwise) origins of music. Now I don't have trouble with this, because I believe that music is a true GIFT, given by our creator, which defies attempts to explain away its significance in our lives, and the lives of all who have come before us.
In this season of gift-giving and gift receiving, I would ask you to give yourselves a small gift - to take one of those pieces of music that you hold especially dear, and to sit and listen to it, sing or dance to it, let it do its magic to you and then think about it. Then think about the world without music, and ask yourselves about the origin of music.
Peace.
Drachma
What got me thinking about all this was that I received a wonderful present for Christmas from my son, a book entitled The Music Instinct, by Philip Ball, in which he describes how our brains behave in response to music, and how we move and sway to music, how we emote to music, and how ALL human cultures have music. But what he has trouble with is trying to find the (historic and otherwise) origins of music. Now I don't have trouble with this, because I believe that music is a true GIFT, given by our creator, which defies attempts to explain away its significance in our lives, and the lives of all who have come before us.
In this season of gift-giving and gift receiving, I would ask you to give yourselves a small gift - to take one of those pieces of music that you hold especially dear, and to sit and listen to it, sing or dance to it, let it do its magic to you and then think about it. Then think about the world without music, and ask yourselves about the origin of music.
Peace.
Drachma
