Yonnex Inc.

 

MAKE MUSIC - BEAT THE BLUES

Have you noticed that there is hardly any article, no column, no television program, or no radio show without mentioning  the pandemic and the virus. I am telling you "Beat the blues". Yes, by making music! If you're not playing an instrument, you'll surely find ways to listen to music.

Music - from the Greek "mousikos" and pertaining to one of the nine muses in the Greek mythology - is the art of combining sounds or sequences of notes into harmonious patterns hopefully playing to ears and satisfying our emotions. An insipid and dry explanation - I must confess.

Can you, my dear reader, imagine a life without music? For me, it would be such a monotonous and boring world. I don't think only about the musical "mayfly" or the so-called "musical nine days wonder". Music doesn't consist of Groove or Techno alone. I am not against these or other music trends, because each generation has its own music development. But we have greater riches of different kinds of music by going back to the Middle Ages, the Renaissance (which means 'rebirth'), the Baroque Age, the Classical Period, and the Romantic Era up to 1900. The Western tradition of music has its origins in the chant tradition of the Early Christian Era.

Everybody can develop his  or her own passion for music. When I was four or so, I grew up already with those kinds of music. I asked my parents voluntarily if I could get piano lessons. It was easy for us because the church organist at that time was our neighbor and a proud owner of a grand piano. I listened to my first organ recital composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. My passion for music was in the stage of development that made it possible for me to join the school band. The Beatles - and Rolling Stones later - era followed - much to the disappointment of my parents and grandparents, who still dreamed of their music, such as Jazz and Swing back to the Golden Twenties.

Everybody has his or her own music philosophy. I learned from my dentist friend in Los Angeles, that her patients lose their state of anxiety by listening to soft background music while having their teeth attended to. A gynecologist explained that if a pregnant woman mostly listens to classical music, her child might hear, learn, find out and experience another (better?) development then other children.

The church reformator Martin Luther (1483-1546) explained it in this way: "Many times, when I was in terrible darkness, I prayed - and I listened to music, which delivered and refreshed me!" The German poet and composer E. T. A. Hoffmann said in 1801, "If you start simply being speechless, music will take over!" And Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), without doubt one of the true and just awesome Western composers voiced out, "Music is utmost revelation then wisdom and philosophy!"

"I feel like flying after entering a church, praying and listening to the music of heaven!" the German poet Friedrich Schiller (1759-1809) philosophized about music in his drama "Maria Stuart".

A simple melody can make us feel happy, sentimental, smiling or crying, aggressive or relaxed. A form of light entertainment in which songs, dialogue, dance, and humour are combined with a not too serious plot is as much as important then a dramatic opera or the single musician or street singer, not being a man of culture, but entertaining us people.

Let's develop our own passion for music, so that we might see the great resources for our daily life, if we accept, that music plays a role in it. Make music - not war! And beat the blues in times of the "Big C"!