Music is not peripheral to my life. It's a critical current responsible for much of the flow in my life. This is not a new insight but this past weekend it came into sharp focus for me.
My niece was married in Virginia yesterday. My daughter and I performed at her cocktail hour. My brother played guitar and sang "Crazy Love" when our niece had her first dance with her new husband. My nephew, who takes guitar lessons with me, sang and played "Book of Love" for his older cousin; his father joined him on guitar. And for four glorious hours all of us danced and screamed to a wonderful nine-piece band. As the night ended, drenched in sweat and delirious with joy, I found myself wondering: What would my life be without music? What would your life be without it?
Yes, I was with my family and it was a happy occasion. But augmenting all the love around, music provided the current that made the day come vividly alive.
About Me
- Pat Barton
- My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".
Pat, Here's a wonderful story about the great cellist, Pablo Casals.A slightly different take from someone spent most of his life as a professional musician with the endless hours of work and discipline that's required:
ReplyDelete"Casals' first visit and tour of the United States came in the year 1901, when he traveled across the nation with a popular vocal artist, Emma Nevada. It was to have been an extensive series of engagements, with performances in 80 different locations! However, midway through the tour Casals suffered a serious injury to his left hand, while hiking in California. He had been climbing Mount Tamalpais, near San Francisco, when a large rock somehow become dislodged, and fell on his hand, crushing some fingers. Casals said that the first thought that came to his mind at the time was, "Thank God, I'll never have to play the cello again!"
Needless to say, it is our good fortune that Casals did continue his career.Speaking for myself (having lived as a professional musician all of my life up to this point)I can say that most days music enriches my life immeasurably. But there are those occasional days when.....
Peter