“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” (Victor Hugo).
I don’t know where in our brains the music department is located, though a neurosurgeon could undoubtedly tell me. What I do know is that music lodges inside us somewhere very deep. We all remember, word for word, those songs learned back at primary school. When my Mum was in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s, the one thing we could still do together was sing hymns. I could take her out to a local café and her lovely soprano voice would adorn the room with all four verses of ‘Praise, my soul, the King of heaven’. And yes, we did receive the occasional look from fellow tea-sippers.
Music has incredible power. It releases an explosion of creativity in us. I’m amazed at the seemingly endless stream of songs which flow off the page of song-writers and composers. I should have thought there weren’t any new tunes left to find, but no. And we all have our ‘Desert Island Disc’ lists of songs which, after hearing just the first bar, can arrow us straight into the emotion of critical moments in our lives. We know from the cinema and TV how significant the backing sound is in creating the desired mood. I sometimes wonder what would happen if, instead of mono-beat pop music, Tesco played something classical or an Irish jig over their sound system – we’d probably shop very differently.
The season of Harvest is upon us, a time to pause deliberately to express our gratitude to God for the abundance of his provision. Our church services will echo with beautiful music and song, itself a harvest of sound gathered from the music departments of composers from as far back as three millennia ago through to the present. If you would like to add your voice to ours, we’d be delighted if you would join us.
Ian Rumsey
PS As a footnote, and on behalf of everyone at St Mary’s and St Luke’s, a huge THANK YOU to those who have given so generously towards the purchase of our new hymnbooks. Music plays such an important role in our churches and we are looking forward enormously to learning new songs as well as revelling in the best of the old favourites.