The power of beautiful music

 

 

In honor of the 250th anniversary this week of Beethoven's birth, I turn my thoughts to music.

Some years ago, I came across this saying (supposedly from a German opera house), and purchased a poster with the imprint for my Mom. She loved it, and hung it prominently in her condo near her piano.

Bach gave us God’s word.
Mozart gave us God’s laughter.
Beethoven gave us God’s fire.
God gave us Music, that we
might pray without words.

Mom really appreciated that sentiment, since she was a great lover of great music - particularly Bach and Beethoven. I am surely blessed to have learned a love of music from her. I am not sure how much I absorbed it at a young age when my taste in music was pretty pedestrian (including the rock & roll of my teen years). But as the years passed, I became mature enough to both appreciate Mom’s insight and gain my own, and I grew to love what we call "classical" music. Today I enjoy a variety of genres, but there is a power in classical music that moves and inspires me greatly.

I remember as a child drifting off to sleep many nights as I heard beautiful music played on Mom's stereo system. Years later, she came to visit me when I was living in Virginia shortly after graduating from college. While driving around the state, I played a cassette tape of "Great Hits of Classical Music" of some sort. Mom would listen to a few notes of the next selection and then would identify the title and composer. It became almost a game between us - I would put in music and she would see how quickly she could identify the piece. She rarely missed. She had an amazing memory for the music!

I #GiveThanks for my mother and for this lesson, among many others, that I learned for her. And for the power of beautiful music! Music was a blessing to her in her declining years after she suffered several strokes. I know it will continue to bless me.