Here are three examples of what I mean when I say it’s important to take time every day to “listen to music — and I mean listen.”
• Sometimes the lyrics tell a truth that is so, so real. I never quite grasped the concept of infinity until I heard the line in the great old hymn “Amazing Grace”: “When we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.” Suddenly I realized just how long infinity is.
• Sometimes the words and music combine to describe a feeling perfectly. I love the line in the 1966 song “Cherish” where the guy is trying to find the words to describe how much he cares about the other person.
“Oh, I could say I need you, but then you’d realize that I want you, just like a thousand other guys who’d say they loved you with all the rest of their lies, when all they wanted was to touch your face, your hands, and gaze into your eyes.” He admits there’s a physical attraction, but his feeling is so much deeper than that.
• And sometimes the music doesn’t even need words to speak to the heart. I think composer John Williams makes good movies brilliant with his musical scores.
I love listening for the little melodies he attaches to certain characters or objects — there’s a moment in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where he stumbles across a drawing of the Lost Ark of the Covenant, and the score plays just a few notes of the ark’s theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
My favorite John Williams soundtrack is to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, which is already a sweet story that Williams raises to epic proportions. The movie opens with the title and credits, in purple letters on black over some eerie outer-space-type sounds, but then from the darkness we hear a flute play a six-note theme. On repeat viewings of the movie, after experiencing the places Williams and director Steven Spielberg have taken that theme, just hearing those six notes is all you need to feel the magic all over again.
I like to tell people to watch E.T. again and just listen to the music. It’s like watching the video of a glorious two-hour symphony.
Just like in the movies, it’s easy to let music fade into the background, but music is meant to be heard. That’s why I try to find time every day to listen to music — and I mean listen, to hear it.
