by Orazio Gentileschi & Giovanni Lanfranco
You see, my dear friend, I am made up of contradictions, and I have reached a very mature age without resting upon anything positive, without having calmed my restless spirit either by religion or philosophy. Undoubtedly I should have gone mad but for music. Music is indeed the most beautiful of all Heaven’s gifts to humanity wandering in the darkness. Alone it calms, enlightens, and stills our souls. It is not the straw to which the drowning man clings; but a true friend, refuge, and comforter, for whose sake life is worth living.
~ Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
(Letter to Nadezhda von Meck, November-December, 1877)
This beautiful quote captures much about music. Great selection, Barbara.
Thank you, Frank! There are periods in my life when I would have gone mad, too, if not for music.
Barbara, did you post this quote just for me??? If so, and I believe you did, thank you! It says exactly why some of us are “addicted” to music, whether playing/performing/practicing or listening. Music has a language unto itself and is able to bridge gaps when language hasn’t the words to say. Beautiful!!
Of course, Debbie! You were the first person who came to mind when I discovered this quote. 🙂 Music is a wonderful addiction to have and even though I can’t carry a tune or play an instrument I couldn’t survive without a daily shot of music and am forever grateful for the people on this planet who can!
Agreed!
🙂
As to your title, yes it does – whether it is music from a tiny bird warbling or the music we’ve listened to on the radio, albums, cassettes or CDs – it transcends us!
Transcends is the perfect word to describe the effect music has on us. It always amazes me how putting on my favorite playlist can transform my mood and lift my spirits!
Yes and it doesn’t have to be any particular genre either … except modern music which I have difficulty understanding the appeal but I guess that is an old thing. 🙂
I know what you mean, pop music in general does nothing for me, but aside from that I enjoy a wide variety of genres in music. 🙂 Especially songwriters singing along with their acoustic guitars. 🙂
I liked when Amazon Prime had that you could pick any singer, any album and it played straight through – now you have to pay extra for that so if I want to hear Gordon Lightfoot or Linda Ronstadt, or some Fleetwood Mac, I go to YouTube. I am trying to get acclimated to this new computer … one nice thing is that I am able to go to YouTube all the time (for weather reports and news stories) as they were blocking me as Firefox browser had an ad blocker, so I couldn’t view any videos. This is a learning process though and honestly, I have the screen size to 150% as the fonts all look so pale.
We have one of those Alexa things that plays music, sometimes from Amazon, but Larisa turned us on to Spotify which I love. I’ve got my favorites playlist and can shuffle it so I never know what’s going to play next. There are so many songs and albums on my playlist that I think I could listen for days before I heard any repeats. It’s a fantastic set-up, but I have no idea how much we’re paying for it.
You are more high tech than me. That sounds like a great set-up. I don’t have Alexa and I just tried “Co-pilot” on my new computer and was wowed by that! 🙂
I am most definitely not high tech, Linda! I just live with a techie wizard who grants me (almost) my every wish. 😉 I have no idea, what is “co-pilot”? 🙂
You are blessed Barbara? Well I clicked into “co-pilot” and it told me to ask it a question. While my new Windows 11 laptop has Microsoft Office 365, the Windows 10 does not. I am going to use it for a while first … but no Word and I do my posts in Word and transfer them over to WP? I asked if Word 2010 could be used in Google Docs … within seconds, I got a detailed answer and links on how to find out how to do this … I thought how in the world did it respond so quickly? And thoroughly? It was a colorful icon on the task bar, so I hovered my mouse over it, then clicked it. 🙂
I bet AI was responsible for detailed quick response! Amazing! 🙂 I’m usually hesitant to click on icons I’m unfamiliar with, worried I’ll make some disastrous mistake, but Tim is like you, he’ll click on anything to satisfy his curiosity.
I was surprised … I did hover my mouse over it first then clicked. When I first got the Windows 10 I clicked on Cortana and it never worked, so maybe this is something that replaced Cortana in a Windows update? I feel like there are a lot of places to navigate on this computer compared to Windows 7.
I bet you’ll keep finding new features over the coming months. Happy exploring!
I think I will too Barbara! I have a lot of “tidbits” of draft walks on this old laptop and stuff all over the place, which I organized back in April, but the clutter looks like my house. 🙂
Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs were all famous for their messy desks. So you can take your place along with all those geniuses, Linda! 🙂
I like that theory Barbara!
Alone it calms, enlightens, and stills our souls. I like that line. Could be the best summation of music I’ve seen.
Leave it to a composer to appreciate, and to find the perfect words to describe the awesome power music holds for all of us.