Retirement Talk
WHAT to do with the rest of your life? |
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Episode 080 Music
Opening scene from the movie 2001: the camera floats over a
seemingly green still earth. The music is the eerie drone from, “Thus Spake
Zarathustra”. Early man appears and a fight ensues over a waterhole. A random
bone is picked up and swung as a club. The affect is dramatic: tools, or
weapons, have been discovered. The music escalates into the thrilling bars of
which we are all familiar. The large bone used as a club is thrown into the air
and morphs into a space ship. Strauss’s, “Blue Danube” settles us in space - music
has a way.
This is Retirement Talk. I’m Del Lowery.
Does music come to mean something else when one retires or
moves into the later stages of life? Does interest in the art form loose force
as one grows older, or grow stronger - sort of like interest in Football –
which I use to coach and now hardly ever watch. I’m not sure. I suppose it
depends on the person. But, music is such a powerful force in one’s life - at
every stage. Even before birth some people start playing classical music close
to the womb in hope of influencing the mind of the yet to be born. I’m not sure
about this idea, but – some people swear by it.
No question that infants enjoy the syncopated beat and
streaming of repetitive tunes. While babe is in the crib, we bend close and
sing lullabies. Before kids can speak they bounce up and down to rhythmic music
and dance before they can walk. Young children continue to enjoy syncopation
and movement to music. They soon sing tunes that they use to drive their
parents crazy. They are eternally repeated as parental reaction moves from
raised eyebrows, to rolling their eyes, to screaming for something different.
Teens have their own music. Rap and hip-hop now course
through the air. They cackle over the radio and stream through the Ipods. For
my generation it was rock and roll or folk music: Elvis Pressley, Peter, Paul
and Mary, Bob Dylan, and Joan Baez, and so many others. Those were the good ol’
days. Today I have no idea as to whom the teen audience listen, it all sounds
like trash to me. But I am sure it is about love, or lust, caring, political
awareness and social conscience. Some teens are more influenced by early
instruction and gravitate towards playing an instrument and the classical
tradition. They read music, study music, play music and explore it in all of its’
manifestations.
My segue into the classical music scene came when I was in
my twenties. Of course, I had some exposure to the genre, but not much. I
decided to take a class entitled, “Literature and Music in Western
Civilization”. It was put on through the
University
of
Colorado
at the summer Aspen Music Festival. A husband and wife team taught the class.
He was a philosophy professor and she was a concert pianist. We read Herman
Hesse’s, “The Glass Bead Game”, and Thomas Mann’s, “
Magic
Mountain
”,
and “Doctor Faustus”. A concert grand dominated the classroom. It was an
amazing experience. We listened to the music in, “The Tent”. The heart leaped
and at other times the tears flowed. Music has a way of getting right inside
the skin. When Itzak Peralman brought the bow across the strings in the tent it
was as if God spoke.
Classical music did not replace the music of my youth. It
only added to it. The two seemed to merge into something greater. I took up the
study of the classical guitar which continues to this very day. It always
amazes me when I strike a string and hear just that pure, crystalline sound.
Even playing the music scales can bring solace and excitement. I don’t play
very well but sure enjoy it.
Retirement expands the time that we can lean back in the
chair, close our eyes and be transported to another world. We find ourselves
getting tickets to the opera in
Vancouver
;
going to music recitals at the college; participating in the local guitar
society, or purchasing some new technology to make music more available through
out the house. Perhaps most appreciated is the time retirement allows for us to
stop and listen to street musicians – one of my most treasured things to do. Tied to the music has been a few years spend
learning Ballroom Dancing where we combine movement to music. Retirement
benefits seem endless.
A few years ago I took my guitar and visited nursing homes
playing in individual rooms. I recall one person who was confined to bed and in
a comatose state. He never moved. In his silent room I played. I’m not sure if
he could hear me but the nurse said that she thought he could and would
certainly appreciate it. Close to death and still music might speak.
Funeral services remind us of this connection. As we gather
to say goodbye to our relatives and friends, the mystical language of music
speaks. The congregation gathers in singing a traditional hymn; the strings
strike familiar notes, the voice of the soloist soars. The music binds us
together. From birth to death, music seems to be a necessity in life. Perhaps Nietzsche’s
most acceptable aphorism was: “Without music, life would be a mistake”.
This is Retirement Talk.
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