“Music is… a mother’s lullaby. It gives sound to our feelings when we have no voice, words when we are silent. In it we praise, love, hope, and remember. In the breath of the soul, the contours of the path of a hummingbird in flight, an the wind that carries it; music shapes and shivers into endless colours, nuanced and diverse, and eternally creative. It is Spirit taking form.


Music is carried by the vibrations of molecules of air, like waves upon an ocean. It perhaps uniquely captures and conveys the interior landscape of one human mind to another, holding our tears and sweat, pain and pleasure, packaged as paeans and preludes and etudes and nocturnes. It is the texturization of the deliquescence of time, the ebb and flow of mood and meaning. It ruminates, vacillates, contemplates and stimulates. 


In music we organize and fantasize, arranging the elements of music- melody, rhythm, and harmony – into meaningful shapes and patterns. Its rhythms move our hands, feet and bodies to the pulses of the universe. Its harmonies breathe with the exploratory intricacies and curiosities of relationship and proportion, consonance, dissonance, assonance, and resonance. Its melodies flitter into flights of fancy, weaving woe and wonder. 


When music is married to language, then what is spoken becomes song, elevating the intentions and entreating us to listen more deeply, making the profane sacred. Music soothes the soul, and the savage beast. Orpheus mystifies creatures and trees, changing the course of rivers, outplaying the Sirens’ song with his lyre. Radha and Krishna play the flute and dance jubilantly.”


Written by Jason Martineau in The Elements of Music: Melody, Rhythm, and Harmony, this bit beautifully communicates the wonders and power of music. Dr. Martineau presents an elegant primer on music theory for both the novice and the professional. Music’s beauty can be admired and enjoyed by all.