The Magic of Music and Song

It amazes me how music can reach deep into your soul. A few bars of a song not heard physically but played in your mind can change one's mood and inspire to rise above fatigue and despair. Or a song on the radio out of the blue can lift you out of the day's tedium into dreamtime. And also the sheer relaxing pleasure of playing old favourites on the weekend while you do housekeeping chores or do cooking or preparing. Magic is the right word.

In a conversation with Meredith along these lines she told me three short stories. Firstly, when she visited our grandmother regularly in her last days in 1996, 'old nanna' was 99 years old and failing in memory. She didn't know Meredith's name or who she was but she would sing old hymns word perfect quietly to herself in a semi euphoric state that belied her circumstance.

Secondly, Meredith's husband Roger plays piano at St. Marks church in Emerald. He was playing to a group of people one day, one of whom was a man who had suffered a stroke and had lost his ability to speak. At the the conclusion of of a piece Roger was playing, this man rose from his chair and slowly walked to Roger and said, "That was beautiful, thank you," then returned to his seat. Afterwards he could no longer speak again but there was something in the music that triggered his brain at that moment to enable him to say his words.

Thirdly, and this seems impossible and I have no evidence to support it, Meredith's son in law Matt, a music teacher, told Meredith of an incident in a book he read. A lady who had never played the piano was struck by lightning, after which she could play the piano expertly by ear.

There was a fourth, of a severely disabled person who could not speak but could play the piano by ear, but I don't quite remember any more than that, maybe I'll update this later. I'll talk to Matt to when I see him.

Play it again Sam.