The Magical Gift of Music

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I’m sure that many of you can relate when I say that music is deeply ingrained in my life. Last Tuesday, Chrissie and I went to an ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) concert and had a great time. We’ve listened to ELO since we were teenagers, and their music is just part of life. (Coincidentally, while shopping for shoes today, I heard Strange Magic playing on the overhead speakers.) It was a great show, and so many of the songs brought back happy feelings of decades gone by.

Of course, every morning since, I’ve woken up with an ELO song bouncing around my head. “Earworms” can be good, but are often aggravating. These have been fine…for now. And, as you know by now, what I think about during the week usually winds up in a Sunday blog post.

This post isn’t about ELO, but ELO is contained in the overarching theme: Music is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us to enjoy as we make our way through mortality. It can carry great power: It can elevate moods, it can motivate, it can comfort, it can bring back memories, it can bring happy tears.

It can also do the opposite: It can demoralize, it can bring back bad memories, it can depress, it can bring tears of sorrow and pain. It all depends on the music and the way we internalize it.

As I was thinking about how music is a gift to me, I did some digging and was struck by something: Normal folks couldn’t listen to recorded music until the after 1890. At the World’s Fair in 1893 – for the first time – people could drop a nickel in a slot and listen to recorded music. 1893!

That means that people have been able to listen to music that was not being performed live for only around 130 years – and I’ve been around for almost half of that time! The vast majority of the billions of people who have lived on this earth never got to listen to the exact same song twice.

Before then, to hear a song or a symphony, you were required to be there when it happened – live – and you could only hear that performance once, then it was gone. It’s no wonder that in the Georgian era novels, whenever there was a get-together, they would trot out one of the girls to play the piano for them.

If you were lucky enough to hear Mozart conduct his Sinfonia Concertante in E flat Major, K. 364, (One of my favorites), you would likely listen to it once and then never hear it again in your lifetime.

We are light years from Thomas Edison’s phonograph. We can access almost every song ever recorded with the touch of a few buttons and hear it in remarkable fidelity from almost anywhere. Hiking in the remote woods? Yep. In a car? Sure. In an airplane? Why not? In a spaceship? They do it all the time. It is mind-boggling.

In just my lifetime, we have gone from stereo records and FM radio to 8-tracks, to cassettes, to CDs, to digital. I still remember fiddling with the antennae of my transistor radio in the window of my bedroom in Bountiful, Utah, so that I could listen to KOMA, a radio station in Oklahoma City – because the SLC stations stopped broadcasting at night.

One of my favorite bands released a new album on Friday. (The Cure.) My son, Dan, is a wildly talented musician living in Boston. We listened to the album together on Spotify and gave a running commentary via text messaging. Crazy technology, but it brought back memories of hauling one of my new records to a friend’s house and lying on the floor while we listened and read the liner notes.

While music is a terrific gift from God, there is another gift that I think is amazing: our brains store music differently than other memories. (link) My brain absorbs music and lyrics in a way that surpasses any other type of learning I’ve experienced. (Oh, that I could remember people’s names as well as I can remember song lyrics.)

From a spiritual standpoint, music can draw the Spirit closer, it can heal, it can give peace.

“We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer.”
— President J. Reuben Clark Jr

“Music is truly the universal language, and when it is excellently expressed, how deeply it moves our souls.”
— President David O. McKay

“Music can act upon our senses to produce or induce feelings of reverence, humility, fervor, assurance, or other feelings attuned to the spirit of worship.”
— President Spencer W. Kimball

I had the good fortune of being seated at a table at a recent conference with one of the men who is busily working on the hymns for the new church hymnbook. It was fascinating to learn about what goes on to make that happen. But, I need to save that for another day.

I am grateful for the gift of music and the gift of music recall, both of which allow me to have a song in my heart or in my ears anytime I desire. When I use music wisely, it blesses my life and brings me joy, peace, happiness, memories, and often the needed motivation to work or work out.

There are times when the world can be chaotic. The next few days will probably make a lot of people nigh-on crazy. I suggest that when the stresses come at us and begin taking their toll, we turn off those influences, pop in the earbuds, put on the headphones, or crank up the speakers and let music take us away.

Music is one of God’s great gifts. It is also one of the many evidences I have that God loves us. Whether it be a stirring symphony, a spiritual feast, or a playlist to pump me up, music is good for my soul.

Please comment and let me know how you feel about music and how it plays a part in your lives.

Also, more info about my novel will drop soon! If you want to be on the email list, shoot me a message at brad@thuswesee.com