Amazing...
Yet again, words do fail me. And yet again, this time for a movie. But this is a good reason. I just watched Les Choristes. What an incredible, absolutely amazing movie that is. It's about this school for troubled boys in France in the 40s. A musician becomes the prefect, and he forms a choir from the boys. There's one boy who has this gift for a voice... I started crying when he first sang. It was like, oh, pure light, pure gold, shimmering... What to make of something that's so dear to my heart in the first place! But it was the music that was so beautiful. The music had this effect on the boys. It made them civilized, so to speak. I can't express in written words the absolute power I felt in that. I mean, it sounds corny, but the music has such an effect, always an effect. Is that not what runs our lives? What goads and instigates our emotions? When I'm sad, I listen to requiems. When I'm angry, I listen to Liszt. When I'm happy... I listen to it all. I mean, I ease my mind by playing Chopin on the piano. I pour my grief, my excitement, my anger, everything into what I sing and play. Isn't it marvelous the effect it all has? How it can change the outlook of your day? And it reminds me of so much. Right now, I'm listening to the Lacrymose from Mozart's Requiem. We sang that in concert choir last fall, and I'm reminded of that time. The thoughts I had, the emotions, the desperation. The music recalls the memory better than the memory itself does. I see one scene where I'm walking into the auditorium and everyone is on the risers. It's almost time for the fall concert, and we're rehearsing in the auditorium. I'm looking for someone. And the music. The Lacrymosa and the Dies Irae. When I hear Totentanz, I think of the piano competition last fall, and how excited I was about that. When I hear Chopin, last summer comes to mind, and this summer. Maria Callas... is timeless. The mandolin that played outside of our apartment in Venice... I'll always remember that. I'll always remember Venice that way. Sing Me to Heaven will always remind me of those two days during NYSSSA. The day of the emails... and the day the whole choir broke down sobbing. Isn't it amazing what music does for us? I just want to create music and listen to music... It's so incredible. Music will save the world. John Lennon had it right with Imagine. If everyone listened to that song. If everyone took that message and actually thought about it. Sans sang. The world will be saved by music.