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Music
of the Soul Moments
"Adagio for
Strings," Samuel Barber (1936)
When I first heard this
score many years ago, it's depth seemed to settle deep within my soul.
When I would listen to its crying strings, there was something that was being
said to me, but I was not fully understanding the voice in which they were
speaking; until a few years later. I was going through a difficult time in
my life in which I did not think that I was ever to see the end. One day
during this period, I was writing some poetry and listening to Barber's music
when the "Adagio for Strings" began to play. I sat and listened
with a surreal intensity because as the piece progressed, I was finally
beginning to understand what the stringed voices were trying to convey to me
through their imagery. The composition sings of the trials and
tribulations, pains and sorrows that all God's creatures must endure while we
live on this planet. But, as the music reaches its climax and drops into a
pool of silence, the sound of a new horizon begins to be heard which, to me,
represented the growth of my soul through all the difficult experiences I was
encountering. I am still amazed at how this one piece had the ability to
effect the clarity to which I could see the problems I faced. Now when I
hear this music, I always seem to see my life in a different light. ---
Robert Florine - High Point, North Carolina
"To
A Wild Rose," by Edward McDowell
I never was one of those greenhouse roses. Me? I'm a WILD
ROSE. I was a rebellious kid in my parents' strict, religious
household. I moved to New York City to leave all that behind.
Years later, when my parents were aging, I came back to take care of them in
that same house. Me? I like jazz music--I've heard the best of 'em,
live! But this little "To A Wild Rose" thing gets to me.
It's simple, and free, and sings my spirit--- a wild rose--no longer
bound. I'm content to be back in the "greenhouse" walls of my
childhood. My freedom--now--is inside myself--it's not bound by these
walls. ---- CW
"Here
is the Little Door," by Herbert Howells
A beautiful, strange and haunting Christmas
Anthem, with wonderful variety of mood and a bitterness which matches the
lyric's allusion to martydom. ----- Simon -- Denmark
"The
Lord's Prayer, " by Malotte
Back in 1956, my 10 year old daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
After surgery to remove it, she went blind. Hospitalized for weeks, I'd
stay with her as much as I could. Leaving her always broke my
heart. A kind doctor brought a record player to her room. Every
night when I had to leave, I'd turn on a recording of "The Lord's
Prayer." She always went to sleep peacefully with that. My
daughter died. At her funeral, the soloist sang "The
Lord's Prayer." I couldn't take it. It was too much.
Too painful. Too soon. Too raw. I'm grateful for that doctor's
goodness. I wish the singer had asked me ahead of time. ---- GB
"Blue
Skies," sung by Willie Nelson
A few weeks before
getting married, a little melody kept popping in my head. It wouldn't
leave me alone. I knew it was a piece of "Blue Skies," but I've never
owned the music--recording or score. It's not even my style of music. I
tracked it down and found the phrase. I'd heard Joy B. (of this website)
say to "listen to the music that pops into your consciousness. It may hold
treasure and wisdom, just like a dream." This did. I can't find the
words of the song now, but they were so true. Something about "never did
things look so bright" and "how the time flies when you're in love." I
have no idea when or where I'd heard it, how it stuck with me, or where it came
from. It was true then, and still is, several years later. ----
Suzanne Pershing, AZ
"Everything in life responds to the song of the heart."
quote from Ernest
Holmes, Founder of Church of Religious Science
sent by Val Cooper, Chula Vista, California
Christmas Eve
Pain
I had a bad accident in
1988, requiring 6½ hours of surgery and a 2 week stay in the hospital. The
day I finally was released from the hospital was December 24, 1988. My
parents took me to the Christmas Eve church service. I remember I ended up
sleeping through most of the service, due to the medication I was on.
However, towards the beginning of the service, I remember one particular song
that whenever I hear it, it strikes a raw nerve. That song is "Silent
Night." No matter how many years pass, I just can't help but feel utter
total grief whenever I hear "Silent Night." Perhaps that explains why I
have never really been able to enjoy Christmas since 1988.
---- Stephen King, Jr., Canton, Georgia
"Music
is God's cool rain on the parched and thirsty soul." anonymous
I found this in a music magazine years ago, and kept it on our
refrigerator. I also posted it in our Children's Choirs Resource Center at
our church in Savannah, GA, through the 1970's. In 1979, my
husband's job transferred him to Saudi Arabia. Married for 28 years, we
moved from our family-sized house to a tiny bachelor's apartment. As a
woman, I was not allowed to drive, & therefore was confined to the apt. The heat
and powder-like sand seemed to sift through our walls. A thermometer on our
front veranda read 120 degrees as early as 6:30 a.m. Separated from family
and all that we knew as "home," our whole beings were "parched
and thirsty." We were able to get some magnificent cassette recordings into
the country. Truly, the beautiful music was like "God's cool rain on our parched and thirsty souls." ---- Jane Berger, Augusta,
Georgia
Music
for Perspective, Reflection, and Soothing Environment
Music soothes my soul. I was blessed with a family that "LOVES"
music. Somehow classical and the good ole gospels bring tears of
joy. The tears are for those that I hold dear and I am reminded that I
frequently fall down by not telling them "I LOVE YOU." Music
helps me to put things into perspective and provides a soothing environment for
thought and reflection. Organ music reminds me so much of a young girl I
watched playing the big pipe organ in church. I had goose bumps and
tears. That young girl is a grown woman now and she is one of my HERO's.
---- Janice Anderson
Ordinary
Evening Music
This is hard for me to describe. There is hardly anything tangible that I
can point to after hearing the music I'm about to describe, but my life is
different now, subtly different, but richer, more nuanced, happier, filled with
a kind of relaxed joy I have never experienced before. It happened simply
when a friend told me about a new musical artist he had heard and like immensely
on mp3.com. I went and listened on an ordinary evening and things have not
been the same since. I was swept up and transported somewhere, to a place
I really don't know where, that was peaceful, tranquil and happy. And the
feeling has lasted and lasted. The music was by a man named Claudio
Cornucopius. I go back everyday and listen and it has transformed by life! Thank
you for letting me share my experience with you. ---- Sharon Bartholemew
"A
Whole Lot of Loving," by Led Zepplin
"What
Must I Do to Be Free?"
In memory
of my hospice patients who've taught me about
living and dying, I list titles of "soul" music they have shared with me. Behind
each piece is a person, a powerful life-story and depth encounter.
The names and stories remain anonymous, protecting confidentiality. The
memories and meanings strike fire in my soul ...
Joy Berger
With A Made Up Mind, gospel song, author not known
Begin the Beguine, Artie Shaw
Symphony #6, Movement 3, by Mahler
(the section with the cowbells)
Mother, It Is Night, sung by Laurel
Masse & Ysaye M. Barnwell
The River, by Garth Brooks
Amazing Grace
Precious Lord, Take My Hand, by
Thomas Dorsey
It Ain't Easy to Say Goodbye,
sung by Wynonna Judd
How Can I Help You Say Goodbye?,
sung Patti Loveless, written by Karen Taylor-Good
Sophisticated Lady, by Duke
Ellington, Irving Mills, & Mitchell Parish
Requiem, the Soprano Aria, by
Johannes Brahms
You Are My Sunshine, by Jimmie
Davis
Let It Be, by John Lennon &
Paul McCartney
Mozart, "anything by
Mozart"
Stardust, by Hoagie Carmichael
Ave Maria, different versions (Bach
- Gounod, Schubert)
"I Sing Because I'm Happy, I
Sing Because I'm Free," gospel
There Is A Balm in Gilead,
African-American spiritual
Fanfare for the Common Man, by
Aaron Copeland
May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up
Your Nose, by Jimmie Dickens
Hymn of Promise, by Natalie Sleeth
You'll Never Know, by Mack Gordon
and Harry Warren
Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht (Silent
Night, in German)
The Streak!, sung by Ray Stevens
Cappricio Italien, by Tchaikovsky
In the Upper Room, sung by Mahalia
Jackson
Old Joe Clark (?), bluegrass folk
song
The Rose, sung by Bette Midler
"We'll understand it better by
and by...," gospel song
O Come, O Come Emmanuel, plainchant
Your Cheatin' Heart, by Hank
Williams
The Eensy Weensie Spider
You'll Be In My Heart, by Phil
Collins
How Do You Solve a Problem Like
Maria?, from The Sound of Music
Go Rest High Upon the Mountain,
by Vince Gill
We Shall Overcome
Feet of A Dancer, sung by Maura
O'Connell
I Believe I Can Fly, by R. Kelly
"We wish you a Merry Christmas
& a Happy New Year" (knowing death is near)
Angels of Mercy (CD/cassette), by
Kentucky Standard Band
Herbie Hancock's jazz
Traumeri, by Robert Schumann
I'm the Great Pretender (composer?)
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, J. S.
Bach
Any Wedding Music
You Made Me Love You, I Didn't
Wanta Do It
Fur Elise, by Beethoven
On the Atchison, Topeka, and the
Santa Fe, by Harry Warren
Life's Railway to Heaven
When We All Get to Heaven
Cardboard Box
I Saw the Light
Six Little Ducks that I Once Knew,
children's folk song
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . and many more . . . . . .
