“Art is just another form of prayer.”  Rainn Wilson

How often have you heard a musician say “music is not what I do, it’s who I am”?  I believe that this is a crazy hard statement for those who are not musicians or artists to understand.  While other professionals may say they are an engineer or lawyer or doctor, they are trained in these areas, they do not become these things.  I believe musicians,  actually become a part of the art form, something that not only requires both cognitive and physical skills but intense emotional investment and vulnerability.

I feel very strongly that music must be done well – period.  At whatever age, at whatever level of skill, it must be done as well as possible.  This requires work.  My students who are 4th and 5th graders join choir just because they like to sing.  This is a great start and I choose music accordingly – I WANT them to enjoy it.  However, they are quick to discover that singing is work as they stretch their ranges, their air capacity and their knowledge of the music itself.  What are they communicating through the music?  It can’t all be left up to the words, those are merely lyrics that someone else wrote.  They must be interpreted and we must allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to let go and become a part of the music as part of that interpretation.  How can we make music so that the audience is impacted?

Sometimes words are simply powerful and other times a melody in itself can be beautiful.  However, put those two things into the hands of a musician who can put life into that melody and those words and you have something magical.  And once it has been given to the audience it is gone, never to be replicated the same way ever again.  It is a once in a lifetime experience, a gift, just for that particular community of people to hear and be a part of in that moment.  This is why the quote from Rainn Wilson touched me so deeply today when I heard it – art is just another form of prayer.  When music reaches this level of oneness with a person or group of people, it is truly a prayer to God, a thank you for creating us in the image of the Creator.  For that tiny moment, we can imagine what it might be like to sing with the angels.

I’m not saying that all music has to be so serious.  We are born with the capability of making music.  Just watch babies and toddlers create their own music and movement.  It is innate, something they just have to do.  This doesn’t change.  I watched a couple of young men in the car next to me yesterday, just singing away, rocking their heads up and down and laughing.  This was not music to be performed at your local arts center, but it was shared experience of using their minds and bodies to express themselves and enjoy music.  Whether it’s singing or playing an instrument at church, at a karaoke bar, in the shower or while playing with a child, everyone and I mean EVERYONE has this inside of them.  Just like using our bodies to play sports or dance because we were meant to do that, so it is with music.

Music made together by a community of people can be a communal offering to those who hear it.  It takes collaboration, selflessness and getting out of your own head enough that you can let go and make the music happen.  Yesterday I watched a transmission of the opera La Fille du Regiment by Donizetti by the Metropolitan Opera.  A colleague who works at the Met sent this thought to those of us participating:

In our divided global community, witnessing a Mexican tenor and a South African soprano captivate an American audience in a French comic opera by an Italian composer is an event I wish every student could witness.

As cliche as it sounds, music brings people of all backgrounds together.  In good times and in bad times, it can be the glue that keeps things sane.  Imagine if everyone worked together with the same intensity for a common goal, in a manner so unselfish, working on something that they aren’t going to keep for themselves but give as a gift to others.  It is why music education is so important in the lives of our children as they learn to navigate this world and in turn learn to put in the work and give it away.