budaful music

Every once in a while I get to thinking about the essence of music. You know, what music is. What is music to you? As I finish up my graduate studies and (hopefully) graduate in the coming month, I reminisce about the times when I sang around the piano with my family. That’s what music is. The hours that I spent preparing for my senior piano recital. That’s what music is. When a congregation sings a hymn of praise in worship to their Maker, yes, even that is music. Those moments in a musical performance that just gel with the entire ensemble and music… happens.

That is what music is.

As my inbox gets cluttered with messages from various music downloads sites displaying the latest hit single, I think, “That’s not music.” As I listen to my iPod as I work out with all of my favorite tunes, I think, “Even this is not music (though they are recordings of what music sometimes is and often we are content with just that).” When I look back at tonight and think about the pieces that the BJU Chorale sang, I grin and think to myself, “Yes, I made music that night. That was what music is.”

Thank you Dr. Cook and Mr. Flower, it has been a pleasure and an honor to make beautiful music with you.

What is music to you? May I suggest that if your music listening habits consist of mostly CDs and head phones, you are missing out on what music is. Go to a concert and hear the difference.