Wednesday, June 3, 2009


The Fifth Element

It was a linen shirt, long sleeved and whisper pink, and I stood in Macy’s considering it on a quiet Thursday afternoon. Gradually, almost unconsciously, I became aware that I was swaying ever so slightly to music. Then I heard, pouring from the store speakers like rivulets of honey, the familiar strains of Aretha Franklin’s, Baby I Love You. I looked around me and observed the delightful spell being cast from this marvelous sound. A flawlessly coiffed elderly lady in a St. John suit was strolling through the handbag department, her steps in perfect time with the song. The young woman behind the counter was casually bobbing her head back and forth to the rhythm, while a delivery man entered from outside and immediately fell into leisurely step with the seductive beat as he made his way up the store aisle. It was incredibly entertaining to watch, as everyone in sight was reacting to this infectious old classic without even being aware of it. Such is the power of music.

Music is as much a part of our lives as breathing, even though we hardly know it most of the time. Every one of us has a personal soundtrack that has accompanied our days; a musical fingerprint of our lives, unique and specific. Like magic, whenever I hear Dionne Warwick’s,
Do You Know The Way To San Jose, I am once again in the back seat of my family’s leaf green Pontiac during a sunny morning on my way to school. Joni Mitchell’s, Carey, always sends me to the beach and I am a little girl desirous of my very own Mary Quant lipstick every time I hear Donovan sing Jennifer, Juniper. Coldplay’s, Speed of Sound, whisks me off to Regent Street in London. Astrid Gilberto means summer and, of course, Christmas just doesn’t exist without Perry Como or Nat King Cole. For me, James Taylor is high school afternoons and Leonard Cohen’s, Sisters of Mercy, is newlywed bliss. And incidentally, if you ever wished to know what a childhood summer felt like in the southern United States, then pour a glass of sweet tea and listen to the soundtrack of To Kill A Mockingbird by Elmer Bernstein. You couldn’t get closer with a time machine.

There can be no denying the remarkable ability of music to communicate more profoundly, and often with more clarity, than words could ever hope to do. Music seems divinely capable of reaching that inarticulate part of the soul where only the deepest feelings and most heartfelt memories are found. The unscaleable majesty in Saint-Saens
Organ Symphony #3, or the near visible beauty of Debussy’s Clair de Lune. The visceral grief in Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings or the sheer happiness of The Beatles I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
It is almost as if God himself intended music to be the fifth element, -surely as basic as air or water, fire or earth- for after all, did the angels not announce the birth of Christ with song?


30 comments:

  1. Great post and I feel sure you'll have no dissenting comments. I guess that's why music is called the universal language!

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  2. I do agree Pamela. I play several musical instruments - at present I am busy practising to accompany a friend on the keyboard. I associate certain piecesof music with certain events. Some music can lift the soul and other music sadden. Lovely post.

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  3. Music to my ears!
    I saw the "Sound of Music" 6 times in the theater...
    as a child and loved it for the music and of course the clothing.

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  4. Yes, music has the ability to transport us out of our everyday lives and change our moods entirely.
    Almost like smell I think, no WORDS involved.
    A pat for Edward.

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  5. Well !! apparentley as the earth turns it make's a sound.. a note I can't remember which..and also the doctors are researching healing through sound alone..M''mm I know music can lift me right out of myself, and change the day...I reckon your close to the mark, I really do.
    Hugs Lynn xx

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  6. Thanks for always putting a song in my heart
    Love Jeanne♥

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  7. Lovely post, Pamela, and so true. I tease WT if he happens to go shopping with me, because he is singing all the store musak songs the rest of the day.

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  8. love this. love you buying a linen shirt!

    why does music make you cry?

    that song in The King and I where his first wife sings about her love of hiim. ooohhh, buckets.

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  9. What a wonderful post! I am SO moved by music. I actually have to have the music OFF to think or read. I would rather have my headphones on to just listen when I want to relax. I love classical music with a passion but the tunes from my past put me back in time! Thanks for reminding me of the power of music!

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  10. They did indeed sing of his birth and we are told that Gabriel will blow his horn to announce the second coming! Love the post!
    I hope you will come to the Pj Party in the mountains!

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  11. beautifully said - it has the power to bring people to their feet in adoration, to dance madly with abandon, to cry big soggy tears, make mad passionate love, to sing when we don't have a singing voice and a hundred other things, but for me, it got me home from rehearsals driving late at night on two lane country roads for years!

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  12. YES! I have always felt this way! Ther is no other art form that can move us so completely.

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  13. We have one pure 60's and early 70's music night featured on our local radio station on a week night, without many commercials or deviation from the theme.I like to snuggle up on that night,under the bedclothes and listen,eyes closed.This way, I can so easily be transported back to being 16-20 years of age again, in my single bed,isolated in the suburbs, with my whole future ahead of me, with all it entails! To feel physically light and pain-free,...only this way can I remember it. The early Beatles music was incredibly uplifting. I enjoyed this post Pamela, thank-you so much!

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  14. I can relate to nearly all the pieces that you mention, especially the James Taylor for whom I have a great affection. Have you ever thought of adding music to your blog?

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  15. I love your blog and I have you linked on mine! so I visit you once a week, but not always I leave you a note...
    so now I do!!!!
    gr. Anna

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  16. More than just words can be expressed in song. I think that is a great gift.

    I am the same- certain music puts me back in the place where I 1st heard it or listened to that album a lot.

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  17. As I write this blog I am listening to Mozart's so-called Elvira Madigan playing through my computer and I could not agree with you more about music. A world without music would not be worth inhabiting. But then there is always nature's music: the wind in the trees, a trickle of water, birdsong, the list is endless.

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  18. music is amazing.
    i could not imagine my life without it.

    it's the 'good drug.'
    xx

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  19. I often ask people what one song would they pick as their personal soundtrack. Mine would be the theme from the movie 'Two for the Road' with Audrey Hepburn. That song just seems to have the same pulse that I feel inside. When I would go shopping with my grandmother she would begin to hum the minute she entered the department store. But that was a long time ago - I'm 100 you know.
    Catherine

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  20. I love people watching, and what you saw in Macy's tickled me. It's so true, Music really is the universal language!
    Beautiful post.
    Did you get the pink shirt? =)
    xo Isa

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  21. A beautiful post. I love music and I love Aretha! Carol

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  22. I rarely include music in a post but I did today because some songs have the power to raise a whole wave of memories all at once. I love to *listen* to music but don't like it as a background noise and can NOT read with music on. I am always amazed at my granddaughters who write essays with their earphones on and get A's. Interesting how we all have different responses, isn't?

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  23. Well your words here are a song, how perfectly wonderfully said.

    Carey is my all time favorite song.

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  24. I so agree Pamela.
    I have to listen to music everyday! and get SO excited when i find new pieces to love.

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  25. I really enjoyed this piece Pamela. I've heard that memories associated with emotion are more easily recalled and wondered if it's the emotional aspect of music that evokes such strong associations with the past? To me music is a sensory experience, not only of enjoyable sounds but especially of gratifying emotions. Music can move me like a puppet on a string and I don't mind at all! Great post!
    ~Kalianne

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  26. Hello P&E,

    Yes, music is the bringer of memories and emotions; some joyous, some sad but even the latter seem capable of lifting the heart.

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  27. Helloo Pamela! Thanks for visiting and seeing my doll heads! It's fun to dabble in glitter! Give Edward a big fat hug! Anita

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  28. S true Pamela, I remember the light and the cello music as an integral part of the announcement of President Kennedy's assassination.

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  29. Interesting idea to have music as the 5th element! You may know that what is said of Lucifer, the highest-used-to-be archangel, is that in his body used to be something like a pipe organ and musical instruments.

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  30. You are so right dear friend and there is no denying it.

    xoxox

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I love to read your comments! Each and every one! Though I'm always reading your comments, I may not respond in the comment section. If you want to write me directly, you may do so at pamela@pamelaterry.net. Thank you for reading!