The world still reels in shock over the terrorist attacks in Paris and Kenya while ISIS announces their readiness to carry out similar atrocities in major US cities, while here in our little corner of the world beautiful music echoes through the concert hall. Our New Horizons Concert Band performed our fall concert with everything from Sousa marches to arrangements of classic Christmas carols and stately hymns. It seems incongruous, but that's often the case in life. We careen from joy to sadness and back to joy, sometimes in a matter of moments. While we rejoice, others weep, and vice-versa.
Through the understandable and perhaps politically necessary calls for retribution, I know that ultimately hatred cannot cast out hatred and violence cannot cast out violence. Darkness is not dispelled by adding darkness, but by light. And perhaps sound. The Bible tells the story of King Saul tormented by dark mood swings that were alleviated when David played his harp. Music is powerful stuff. Adolf Hitler was often inspired by the haunting violence of Wagner's operas, while hard psychedelic Rock has been the background of everything from suicide to homicide. But beautiful music has the power to soothe or lift the troubled spirit. My little four year old granddaughter, like countless other little girls, joyously twirls with arms open wide as she sings, "Let it go!" Those notes and rhythms are not just marks on a musical staff; they live inside her.
Tonight's strains filled the hall with beauty, and my heart with joy. It's been a couple years now since I again picked up the bassoon after a fifty year hiatus, and all I could think of through the entire concert was, "this is so much fun!" And it is so much more. We are told that the very building blocks of matter-atoms and subatomic particles-are not necessarily particles at all, but energy; vibrations of sound unheard by human ears. All Creation truly sings the praises of God. And if music truly has the power to heal, it is perhaps its ability to harmonize in tune with those sub-atomic vibrations.
Tonight's concert certainly isn't going to silence the dissonant sounds of rockets and gunfire, but perhaps in its own small way it can dispel some of the dissonance in our listeners' hearts. If nothing else, there is beautiful harmony in my heart tonight, for which I am grateful.
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