"’I don’t like things,’ he said, ‘which interfere with one’s heart strings.
It doesn’t do to awaken longings that can’t be fulfilled.’” -Enoch Powell
I found this quote in an article today. Enoch Powell was a British politician. Apparently as a young man he'd been a gifted musician, but as his parents thought he should focus on more scholarly pursuits, he put away his clarinet and didn't touch it again for at least 50 years. Instead he devoted himself to words and writing - a full professor of Ancient Greek at 25 (according to Wikipedia). The quote above was his response when asked why - in his older years - he rarely listened to music.
How sad that he should abandon something that stirred his soul this way? How true this sentiment for many who share a love of music?
I write. I have seen the power of words. I don't think my words have ever even begun to "awaken longings that can't be fulfilled." I do, however, understand this power of music. Take, for example, the third movement of Brahms' Symphony #3. That piece of music pulls me into it's longing - makes me yearn for something unknown. Albinoni's Adagio in G minor evokes the longing of separated lovers - especially in this arrangement where the violin calls to the organ and the organ answers. And if you've seen The King's Speech, you know how the director wove Beethoven's 7th Symphony into a speech, which together conveyed the longing of a nation for peace though they were on the brink of war - and the longing of a King to be worthy of his new reign.
I sang in a Chorale while in college. We would welcome new students by teaching them our alma mater - the theme was taken from the sextet in Lucia de Lammermor. We also had many occasions in which we were able to sing while accompanied by a pipe organ with over 4,000 pipes - and on several occasions we were lucky enough to sing with the WV Symphony. There's really nothing that lifts my heart like feeling the music - the deep notes of the pipe organ reverberating up through your feet to burst from the top of your head or being bathed in the sound of strings. Even now, it evokes a longing to just once more join in a chorus of song.
Awakening Longings... thankfully my musical longings are fulfilled. I would never have the discipline to live without the joy of music.
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