I got the music in me.
I recently had the undeserved and thrilling privilege of attending a concert starring Marina Prior and David Hobson. Perhaps you were there too. It was a sparkling evening with great company and sublime music.
Marina spoke about her formative years and how the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber inspired her. She raised the obvious question which went something like this. ‘How did this man have all that music in him?’
It's a heartily good question, but if we reflect for a moment we all have some kind of music echoing around within us. Sure it may not be the same sort, or the same calibre, or the same style as Lord Lloyd Webber. We may not actually ever compose music and put dots on a page. But if we stop and listen for a while… just be still for longer than thirty seconds and really listen, we will realise that there is often some kind of music going on.
Sometimes the music is frenetic and a bit hurdy-gurdy with lots of instruments all competing for our very limited attention.
Sometimes it is romantic and alluring, sometimes (and this happens all too infrequently) it is calming, soothing and relaxing. Sometimes it is poignant and potent. Sometimes it is glorious and triumphant. Think of Elgar's pomp and circumstance.
I wonder what might happen if we stopped more frequently and simply listened to the ‘music’. What would the music tell us?
In the dream world, we would have a smorgasbord of all sorts of different music. It would be balanced and our playlist would not be weighted too heavily for too long towards one ‘flavour’ or the other.
We all have the music in us. What’s your tune… right now?