A tribute to Music

Song. It has passed on so many traditions. It is the music of the soul, and soul music. It can be the bridge to the divine. It is written for love, to mourn, to grieve, to celebrate, and just for the sake of music.

Music is a huge part of our emotional expression. The music we listen to, sing, and perform helps define who we are as people, for better or for worse. Choose your music wisely. Base it on quality of lyrics, and who you want to be. Choose your music to be something you are proud of sharing with others. There are different kinds of music that are incredibly demeaning to others, and that's the kind of music that is destructive. It's full of anger, it encourages racism and sexism, it encourages problem solving by violence. That kind of music defines you too, if that's what you listen to.

But there are so many wonderful kinds of music out there, and so many ways to express yourself through it. My sister plays in a band that plays some jazz and swing, a very good friend of mine is a piano accompanist for a choir, and she also plays in many concerts outside of that, I have an acquaintance who sings professionally(?), and a classmate of mine and I just sing in the car along with the radio.

One group that performs quality music is the Nylons. They have been around since 1979, when they started singing gigs in clubs across Toronto. Completely acappella, (well, ALMOST completely acappella - sometimes they use a tambourine, for example) they let their voices be the harmony and beat that instruments would otherwise provide. I was reminded of them, oddly enough, in a carpentry course I am currently taking, and the song was not "Chain Gang", although that would be fitting considering the kind of work we were doing, but "Up the Ladder to the Roof".

This kind of music is pretty much as close to pure music as possible: all you use is the sound of your own voice, as does the wind, the birds, and the sound of the rain. Sure your voice can make so many different sounds, as the rain makes a different sound for everything it hits, and we can play different instruments, but when all rain has is water, or all you have is your own voice, you can still make music.

And we shall let expression ring
Hear freedom in our singin' ...