Friday, January 7, 2011

Music




“He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.” I Sam 16:16

“When I sit in the dark all alone, a single note beautifully played does bring comfort to my heart,” said one renowned musician.

I don’t know music, but I do appreciate music and know it does a lot of things, including healing.

Playing music to a plant can even enhance its growth. Is it really so? I have my doubts, but experiments have been done and might have proved me wrong.

Being a young Bohemian, I pretended to like classical music and often went to classical music concerts with my friends, but I remember getting quite impatient listening to Beethoven and couldn’t wait for it to end.

I have passed the age of trying to do things to impress people, so I can truly say that I listen to music for the sake of listening and do get some pleasure out of it. But the joy of listening is often short-lived, since I know very little music and I can’t always keep the beat when I sing. I do have a reasonably good baritone voice, yet it’s not refined for lack of proper training.

How did this verse bring up such an outburst of thought and emotion within me? I have no idea. I guess music and I have never gotten along, just like math and I have never been friends, and any attempts to reconcile the two in the past have always ended in dismal failures.

Was it the music David played that soothed Saul’s aching heart when he was afflicted by a demonic spirit, or was it really the musician that made the difference? I believe it was the musician that did the magic.

Many people in Israel could probably play the lyre equally well, but only David had the power in his fingers to cast out demons from the king and bring peace to his soul.

Many people can play music, but only a few special ones can cause music to do something magical and unique. It took a man after God’s own heart to play the lyre to cast out demons and bring healing to Saul.

Artists must have hearts. Only a few exceptional ones can make the vital connection between their art and their audience’s hearts when they perform. When music speaks, it primarily speaks to the listeners’ hearts.

David's heart was filled to the brim with the love of God; therefore he was able to cast out demons with his music. I guess this is way too much to ask musicians to do nowadays. I believe an artist’ primary responsibility is to build a bridge that connects time with eternity, physics with metaphysics, and enables laymen to travel across the known to the unknown, the concrete to the abstract, which is the point when healing takes places and life happens.

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