All music can be thought of as ‘not silence’. What piece of ‘not silence’ means the most to you right now?
The best is yet to come. Perhaps not always in all things in this world. But I believe these words to be eternally true when it comes to the world of music.
The best thing about loving music is that there is an inexhaustible supply of musical wonders out there. You will never be able to hear all the music in the world. But if you open yourself to possibility, you will certainly be able to find an inexhaustible, ever-replenishing flow of music – new or old – that excites you as much as any you’ve heard in the past.
Music might find you anywhere, at any time, from any source.
Music is a language and a world all its own. It doesn’t need to be about songs. Music is all about where it takes you.
Over the years, I have come to I think of all music as ‘not silence’. Each morning at this time of year, I delight as the chaotically beautiful choir of birdsong comprising the dawn chorus breaks the silence of the morning. Silence giving way to ‘not silence’.
The music – the ‘not silence’ – that speaks to me is always changing. I love the feeling of endless musical discovery. I believe that I will never run out of new and wondrous musical discoveries. I love that I can never know when or where I will chance upon that next song that will make my heart soar.
Just too good to be true
What piece of ‘not silence’ means the most to you right now?
My answer to this question is constantly changing. I hope that it will continue always to change as I hear new music, new ‘not silence’.
Right now, my latest musical discovery is a piece of music I didn’t even know existed this time last week.
Rosalía’s* live cover version (from her current tour in celebration of her stunning Lux album) of Frankie Valli’s 1957 song Can’t Take My Eyes Off You is an incredible piece of work. She sings it so beautifully, somehow making a song that had never really appealed to me before into something that brings tears to my eyes, something that gets at the essence of love itself. Her singing is both masterful and playful all at once.
The live staging of this song is an amazing piece of work, too. Simple and ingenious, as beautiful and as playful as her rendition of the song itself. Rosalía sings from behind a picture frame against a stark, black backdrop. Her dancers surround her, snapping selfies with their mobiles as if they are at either a concert or an art gallery, or both at once. I am sure that this staging is making some profound commentary on the relationship between artist, art and audience that I am not clever enough fully to appreciate or articulate. But at the same time this staging is as playful and classical, as simple, clear and direct in conception as the best routines from 1950s Hollywood musicals.
I am bowled over by both this piece of ‘not silence’, and by how it is presented to the world.
What piece of ‘not silence’ means the most to you right now?
May you be nothing but kind today, to others and to yourself.
May today be nothing but kind to you and yours.
IMAGES
- Linnulaul – Birdsong (26706611455) via Wikimedia Commons.
- MX AMG Rosalia en el Zocalo de la Ciudad de Mexico via Wikimedia Commons.
FOOTNOTES
* Another delightful Rosalía-related discovery: I googled her name while writing this post, so as to be sure that I was getting the accent on the “i” right. At the time of writing, if you type “Rosalía” into Google and hit return, a small blizzard of sheet music with lipstick kisses will descend from the top of the screen.
MJCarty 
.jpg){kind=link}
