Live!
I was at a fundraising concert recently with a friend, where professional and amateur musicians performed a selection of pieces ranging from Bach to gospel. I hadn't really wanted to go, but I owed my friend a favour or two, so along we went one Thursday evening. It was held in a smallish local hall, with a hundred or so people in the audience, including a fair number of small children.
I was confounded. It was wonderful. Just a few examples: an electrifying Chopin piano scherzo; Vissi d'Arte from Tosca; a jazz pianist with an accompanying vocal trio; a performance by a small amateur gospel choir that had the audience clapping along in time; and much else besides of a very high standard, punctuated at various appropriate points by laughter, banter and loud applause. At one point during the aria I felt vibrations in my own throat as well as the tears welling in my eyes; with the jazz my solar plexus was tingling. (It appears that live music causes my body, as well as my soul, to sing. Much as I appreciate my collection of CDs, when I listen to them the effect just isn't the same!).
As time went on a few of the children became over-excited and fractious and had to be taken outside temporarily, but nobody really minded - it was just inspiring to be present at such a celebration of music-making in a community context. On the way home, the echoes of the music and the cheers still reverberated in my thoughts and I reflected on how much nourishment for the soul and the emotions there is in events such as this, particularly in our isolated, virtual era. The evening had turned out to be an unexpected gift.