When I think of home, I usually think of a place; physical, tangible, filled with memories. But last weekend, I had the privilege to attend a concert that challenged that concept.
In 1998, the renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma brought together a group of gifted musicians to form The Silk Road Ensemble. The musicians hail from a variety of countries, including India, Syria, Spain and China. With such a diversity of musical and cultural traditions, one of the main themes of Silk Road is the connection of people across real or imagined borders. As their website puts it, they are a group of "rooted explorers."
On August 7th, these explorer-musicians came to Tanglewood in Lenox, MA and welcomed us into their homes through their music. As the concert began, the lights dimmed, and the musicians came to their places, I was initially struck by the number of unfamiliar instruments on the stage. There were Galician bagpipes, a tabla, a kamancheh, a pipa, a sheng, and a number of classical Western instruments. If you, like me, have trouble visualizing some of these instruments or what they sound like together, you can watch Silk Road in action here.
When they began to play, the music immediately transported me to wherever it wanted me to go. I was just as surprised by the sounds of the Western instruments as I was by the foreign ones; a clarinet made me a guest at a Syrian wedding, and a violin took me for a ride on the A-train in New York City. It made familiar music feel new, and it really did feel as if the artists were leading us through their homes as the music progressed. No words were needed (although the amazing vocalists Wu Tong did perform a few times) because the music brought us in further than words were capable of. As one of my favorite poets, John O'donohue, says, "music is what language would love to be if it could."
We all have our own conceptualizations of home and what it means to us. For me, it's a place. As we grow older, our ideas on where or who or what home is will change. But like the members of The Silk Road Ensemble, I think it's important that we remain rooted as we explore the avenues of our lives.
