麻豆社

Good morning.

鈥楢h Music鈥︹�� reflects Professor Albus Dumbledore, in J.K. Rowlings鈥� Harry Potter and the Philosopher鈥檚 Stone, 鈥樷�� a magic beyond all we do here!鈥� I think the wizard would understand the frisson of excitement around the tentative announcements this week that the Reading and Leeds music festivals plan to go ahead this August.

Music has indeed proved to be a sort of magic during these difficult months. I am not the only listener who would always have said that music was important to me, but have learned over the pandemic just how important. Listening to favourite pieces, to music radio stations, singing or playing a bit if we can - we have even discovered how much live music matters 鈥� even if it is streamed. I鈥檓 so grateful for the ingenuity and perseverance of musicians, from professional orchestras to student music societies, who have found imaginative online ways of passing on to us this wonderful gift.

Robert Schumann, I confess my favourite composer, and no stranger himself to darkness and depression, said of his vocation: 鈥淭o send light into the darkness of people鈥檚 hearts 鈥� such is the duty of the artist.鈥�

But music does more than cheer; it also resonates with our need to create 鈥� Paul McCartney, who announced his forthcoming memoirs this week, said that one of his biggest thrills still is 鈥榮itting down with a guitar or a piano and just out of nowhere trying to make a song happen.鈥� Music expresses important things that words cannot.

Music is a force for change. 鈥業 will sing and make music with all my soul,鈥� begins the hymn of praise to God that is Psalm 108, but reading on reveals that it is actually sung from a dark place of captivity and oppression. Its music isn鈥檛 a decoration; it鈥檚 the beginning of a liberation. And the Bible鈥檚 starkest warning to a nation, that oppresses the poor while gorging on luxury, is to say: 鈥楾he music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again.鈥�

Do we value music enough? In the light of its power to heal, express and transform, doesn鈥檛 it belong closer to the core of education than we currently place it? And have we done enough to help the musicians who have given so much over the last year, but who face growing uncertainties, and now suffer additional difficulties in touring in our neighbouring countries? They have given us much reason to hope; can we give some hope back? As that psalmist sang, 鈥楢wake harp and lyre 鈥� I will awaken the dawn.鈥�

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