The Christmas season is a time to celebrate, and a time to reflect. While we’re all accustomed to care-free carol singing, recent events have stunned us all. What to do?
As a musician, I’ve been confronted by this challenge of continuing on with my work (which is my joy) while feeling the deep pangs of pain that tragedy brings. We all struggle with this. The great conductor, composer and musical visionary Leonard Bernstein summed up what might be the best-possible response with this quote:
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
He also said:
“Music . . . can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.”
(He sounds like Mahler here…)
I hope that all of you will continue to do the things that enrich your lives and the lives of others. My holiday wish is for all men and women to be kind to one another, and to protect our children. And if some of this may be accomplished by the gift of song, then I wish all of you sweet melodies and groovy rhythms.
Hug your loved ones, stay happy, healthy and warm this holiday season!
And keep swinging.
PE