Spiritual
This week: Moved By Music Edited by: NaNoKit More Newsletters By This Editor
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Music is special. It moves the heart and touches the soul...
This week's Spiritual Newsletter, then, is all about those songs that are the soundtrack to our lives.
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What do you feel when you listen to music? Whether you like Beethoven or Skid Row’s Sebastian Bach, I hope that you’ll agree with me that music can trigger, and sometimes even channel, our emotions.
It’s pretty well-known here on Writing.Com that I’m a rock chick, and that my favourite band is Guns N’ Roses. From the moment I first heard them on MTV (when MTV was still a music channel, which rather ages me), something clicked. A connection was established that has lasted until this day, and I have no doubt that I will love their songs for the rest of my life.
Why, exactly, I love their work is difficult to describe. Why does one person like this kind of music and another person that kind of music? Most of my friends love dance music, but it does nothing for me. Likewise, I won’t ever persuade them to come along to a rock concert. Yet, we both have similar experiences when listening to those songs that have managed to touch us. The songs that have become a soundtrack to our existence.
A couple of years back, when Axl Rose reunited with Slash and Duff, I stayed up until crazy o’clock to watch their first show together. The emotions I felt were silly, perhaps, but I was far from the only one who felt deeply touched. I was reminded of the first GN’R show I attended. Whilst, over time, many of the details have faded, others have left a strong imprint on my mind and on my heart.
I have many music-memory connections, not all of them related to my favourite band. When I hear certain Christmas songs, I think back to the Christmas services I went to with my grandmother. She was a member of the choir and had a beautiful voice. I can still see her standing there, on the stage, singing to God and sharing her gift with the congregation, and with me.
There’s a song by Robbie Williams called Feel, that I first heard when I was on my way back from a visit to my family. Sometimes, when you hear a song for the first time, you somehow know it, as strange as that sounds and as impossible as it seems. It was a song that was right for me at that point in my life. Thankfully, I no longer feel that way, but I still love it.
There are other songs that I never want to hear again. Music that has associated itself with bad experiences. When I do happen to hear them, unpleasant memories bubble up to the surface. So, I guess the impact of music works both ways – for good and for bad.
Music seems to be pretty unique in that respect. At least, for me. I have hardly any special memories about when I first tasted certain foods. The only ones are of dishes I tasted when visiting other countries, and the one time my mom tricked me into eating calamari by calling it something cute and not at all related to squid.
I also have hardly any memories about when I first read certain books. I can remember when I read my first Terry Pratchett novel – I was on holiday, visiting a friend, and he had Pratchett’s novels and recommended them to me – but that’s it.
Those memories are about that book and about those foods, more than anything else. There are no emotional triggers involved, whether it be of love or heartbreak, joy or sorrow. Music is special, and deeply imbedded in our global cultures, as well as in our history. Music doesn’t just stir our heart – it stirs our soul.
You may not feel a pleasant chill when you hear a well-played guitar solo. I may not sink into bliss when I listen to a well-played Jazz piece. We get the other, though, I think, when we describe those sensations.
Music connects us to our lives. It can also connect us to the other, through that shared understanding. What will the next song to our soundtrack be? I guess we’ll find out, but I bet that it’s a good one.
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Wishing you a week filled with inspiration,
The Spiritual Newsletter Team
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