As said by Paul Winter, "Music is an expression of sound that reflects the beauty of life." With so much tragedy and violence around the globe, we often find ourselves perhaps feeling depressed, helpless, or hopeless. The search for world peace is long and challenging. I offer you not a solution, but one of the greatest comforts: music.
Music is a beautiful medium to communicate our wishes, whether they are anger, love, or peace. We can celebrate with music, or we can cry with music. With just the right chord, or the right blend of lyrics, music is our own tool to share what otherwise would be left unsaid.
Leonard Bernstein once said, "Music ... can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable." Psychologically speaking, there are many emotions in the human brain. Perhaps some emotions have begun to be understood. But for those emotions and feelings still hidden from our consciousness, music serves to elucidate them. And while musicologists have analyzed the theory and structure of musical composition, the emotions remain enigmatic and original. When we sing "Happy Birthday", for example, we have feelings of happiness. Just the sound of the tune brings out subconscious feelings of joy and celebration. To just think that a simple song can bring such seemingly automatic reactions truly is remarkable.
Music is an aura. It is a completely encasing mood that is more than just a feeling. It is a wave of inexplicable emotions. Somehow, after certain songs, whether pop, classical, jazz or rock, we remain left with a touch of sensation. One can find comfort, find joy, find rejoice and sadness both in music: the search is not difficult. Music is our answer for uniting society with supreme emotion.
No matter what religion, what nationality, what race, or what gender you identify yourself with; there is a way to find yourself and to connect to others through music. However, music can also provide religious, national, and cultural identity. All throughout history, music has been used in cultures worldwide. From the European Renaissance string quartets, to African drumming, to Native American flute playing, the list is endless. Cultures have founded traditions on music and its power to bring society closer. So, unite yourself with others through music, creating peace in our own Tufts community.
We all sing with our voices. Our voices are a gift; they are our own instruments to cherish. We all sing in the shower, in the car, and perhaps even at religious services. It is our individual way to create this an aura of emotion, floating through our ears and processed by our spirits. We celebrate life, we celebrate peace, and we celebrate love with our own voices.
In the Chamber Singers, we sing pieces of art which exemplify my understanding of emotions. Is music the voice of angels, whispering in our ears as we transform our gift of voice into chords of beauty and pain? In "Ubi Caritas" a piece by Durufl?© which we sing, I have incredible feelings of peace. Durufl?© ( 1902-1986) wrote in the style of Gregorian Chants, although he was a professor at the Paris Conservatory. The lyrics to "Ubi Caritas" translate to "Where there is charity and love, God is there... And from a sincere heart let us love one another." Although the text is in Latin, when singing and listening to this beautiful, powerful music, these feelings of peace, comfort and love enter our souls. Agony appears as well in Josquin's "Mille Regretz", a text in French translating to "I have such grief, and sorrowful anguish". When singing these words of pain in chords that wrench your insides, it is inconceivable that the music was created from print on paper.
Seeking comfort and peace is difficult in a troubled world such as ours. Here at Tufts, we are privileged to have so many excellent musical ensembles to provide us with the emotional fun or comfort we need as humans. Through my experience I have learned that the Chamber Singers can offer an evening of supernatural peace, along with great delight in our various selections of pieces of different languages, different eras and different styles.
We sing stories of love and passion, of seasons and crickets, of rejoice and of sorrow, of "Hallelujah" and feeling the sprit. And we sing of the simple: loving to sing, in "Cantemus" by Bardos Lajos (1899-1986): Cantemus, quia cantare bonum est. Cantemus, quia cantare iucundum est. Cantemus, quia cantare amantis est. "Let us sing, to sing is a blessing. Let us sing, to sing is a delight. Let us sing, to sing is love."
Yasmine Afif Iliya is a sophomore majoring in Biological Psychology. She sings alto with the Chamber Singer and plays flute in the Wind Ensemble.
