My Music blog
“Music tames the savage beast,” or “music is therapy for the soul.” These are two well known sayings, but are they true?
I can remember having problems sleeping as a young child, my father picking me up to carry me into the living room, where he would place me in front of the stereo speakers and I would fall right to sleep. Now, as I have gotten older, I often need that stereo to fall asleep. Only now, I no longer need to lie down in front of the speakers. I am also a musician now (drummer), and I believe this has been highly influenced by those early years when my love of music was being honed by my father.
Johan Sebastian Bach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach , genius, certainly one of the best composers the world has ever witnessed. Bach had a relentless pursuit for the perfect composition which drove him to create his masterpieces. Music did not tame him, it propelled him to immortality.
Ludwig van Beethoven http://www.lucare.com/immortal/ , another genius. How savage his pursuit of musical perfection must have been. It is written that Beethoven would often shut himself into a room for days, where he could be away from everyone, and he would compose his works in private. These two geniuses are only examples of the extreme, where music actually drives someone to the brink of madness where magical creation happens. It is in these instances when music will never tame the savage beast because it is responsible for feeding the beast of creativity. However, I’m sure there are parents which can attest to the sound of music quieting a disgruntled child. It is in this instant that music certainly does tame the savage beasts of children.
I do believe music to be therapy for the soul. I have often spent hours listening to the stereo when I just wanted to escape from the confines of societal obligation. We all have seen the person who retreats into music after a traumatic event, whether that was a death, a break up, divorce, or anything. We all have certain songs which make us think about our past when we hear them. We are essentially marking time by the songs on the radio. Since we are a very time oriented people, we will use anything to assist in remembering important events in the passage of time. We need the therapy of music for the stability of our own societal sanity.