What is music? (or, Thank you, Duke Ellington)

Last night I went out to dinner with a bunch of people. I ate barbeque, I got involved in bizarre wrestling matches.

It was a good time.

But somewhere on the road back to campus, something very strange happened. I completely and totally mellowed out. I didn't want to do anything, anything whatsoever. I'm not sure what happened, or why, but it hit me hard and didn't go away for the rest of the evening. For some reason, I'm inclined to say it was just strange form of loneliness, but that cannot possibly be the right word (can it?) because I was hanging out with a bunch of other people.

For the last two weeks or so, I have been making every effort I can to make sure that I am around people - I simply haven't wanted to be alone - so perhaps that ended last night? I don't think so. I didn't want to not be with people. And I woke up this morning looking forward to spending time with friends. But something was weird. And I guess that's just how it goes sometimes.

Music tends to make things better for me. There are a few songs I go to just to cheer me up ("Eskimo" by Damien Rice, for instance). There are other songs that get me moving, wake me up, that I can't help tapping my toe to, rocking out to, and make me want to dance to my class (such as Michael Jackson's "Beat It" - you know you love it). Then there are those songs that I just love. Simply love. They make me stop what I'm doing, sit back, and be washed in the chords, the riffs, the words, all of it creating true music. "Brothers In Arms" by Dire Straits. Something about the thunder rolling intro, that guitar lick that makes you feel like you could do battle with that thunderstorm. The frail voice, singing despite despair. (Of course, I will occasionally also see The West Wing's President Bartlett traveling in his motorcade to a press conference, deciding whether or not he will run for a second term after revealing he has multiple sclerosis and hid it from America - he drives past the National Cathedral where he had cursed God just that morning, where a janitor picks up the cigarette Barlett stomped out right in the middle of the cathedral floor. Amazing sequence, amazing television, amazing display of a man actually dealing with his struggles instead of brushing them aside, fighting over what is right and wrong, what needs to be done in a situation that goes far beyond mundane personal trials.)

Part of me wants to put up the lyrics for you to read, as the lyrics have power in themselves - the title implies a bit of that. But I'm not going to put up the lyrics. It won't be the same. Ask me to hear that song sometime. Maybe it won't affect you the same way, but there is power in it nonetheless. I will, however, leave you with a poem written by Duke Ellington. These words always move me. They say so much, and they explain a lot of my philosophies on life and music and their interconnectedness.


What Is Music? by Duke Ellington

What is music to you?
What would you be without music?

Music is everything.
Nature is music (cicadas in the tropical night).

The sea is music,
The wind is music,
Primitive elements are music, agreeable or discordant.

The rain drumming on the roof,
And the storm raging in the sky are music.

Every country in the world has its own music,
And the music becomes an ambassador;
The rango in Argentina and calypso in Antilles.

Music is the oldest entity.

A baby is born, and music puts him to sleep.
He can't read, he can't understand a picture,
But he will listen to music.

Music is marriage.

Music is death.

The scope of music is immense and infinite.
It is the "esperanto" of the world.

Music arouses courage and leads you to war.
The Romans used to have drums rolling before they attacked.
We have the bugle to sound reveille and pay homage to the brave warrior.

The Marseillaise has led many generations to victories or revolutions;
It is a chant of wild excitement, and delirium, and pride.

Music is eternal,
Music is divine.

You pray to your God with music.

Music can dictate moods,
It can ennerve or subdue,
Subjegate, exhaust, astound the heart.

Music is a cedar,
An evergreen tree of fragrant, durable wood.

Music is like honor and pride,
Free from defect, damage, or decay.

Without music I may feel blind, atrophie, incomplete, inexistent.