My choir director has something every week he calls "Storytime" where he reads us a short story, something to ponder throughout the week. This last week before a performance, he read us a story about somebody who has taken to baking, lots and lots of baking. Essentially, she feels that through baking she is preserving the skills and recipes of her relatives, that otherwise would not live on, and through becoming a more accomplished baker she is maintaining the culture and history of her family. And then the story ended. Usually each story has a little bit of a moral or take-away, so I was somewhat confused when that was the end. Great, so she likes to bake- what's the point?
But then our director went on to make the what should have been obvious connection. This woman has embraced baking as a way to remember her family's culture, and uses it to preserve this part of history which otherwise may have been lost-- but this idea doesn't have to be limited to baking. In our case, our director connected this to the idea of music. Through performing a piece of music, we are doing so much more than simply reciting notes that we have learned over the past few weeks. Yes, we put in a lot of time and work to do so, but there is so much more than can be thought of.
Through performing this music, we are opening a window to the past. It's a window to the time period where the composer lived, to the trials and emotions and passions that went into creating this music that captures this specific moment in time, often from many centuries before. But not only that, if the music has been heard before by members of the audience, especially if it is a piece from the childhood of a now elderly person, we are opening a window into all of these individual moments spread out throughout time, moments that were perhaps forgotten until this very moment-- its calling up the emotions of that moment, the smells and sights, the people and surroundings of all these people as they remember the time they heard this music before. And even beyond that, its opening a window to the present- through performing this music and hopefully affecting the people listening, we are creating new memories, new impactful experiences where music touches the deepest parts of a person's essence. And suddenly performing the music had a completely new meaning, a responsibility even, to properly represent all these moments in time and do the music justice, to provide an experience for the audience that allows for these windows to open.
In this experience, I'm specifically describing the experience of performing music, because that is the medium that I am involved in, but it can apply to almost any sort of creative outflow of emotion, whether that be baking, music, painting, sculpting, dancing, writing, acting, etc. Sometimes it seems as though the creative fields can be dismissed as not being practical, and yet I don't think anybody can deny the power that they have. Practical knowledge is important and intriguing, I myself am studying in the STEM field, and yet I think maintaining a balance between creativity is important too. It provides this chance to preserve history and create new emotional experiences, and that sort of responsibility should be held with high regard.
