Music

I was thinking about the power of music when compared to mere words.  So many minor Renaissance poets are remembered today only because of Lassus, Monteverdi, de Wert and other composers whose music managed to give an enduring life to their rather tedious verses.  Contemporary song lyrics, without the accompanying music, often seem silly or slight.  But as music, they become magical.  On the other hand, even the finest lyrics usually don’t have the power to overcome flat or boring melodies.  In one of his letters to his father, Mozart pointed out that people were willing to put up with the most pointless stupidities in the librettos of comic operas because the music carried them away.  (I quoted part of the letter in my story, “Laurel Eberharter.”)  I know that “experts” attempt to set forth all sorts of idiotic psychological and even (ugh!) biological explanations for why music has this power over us, but I prefer to believe that it is the product of qualities so subtle that they cannot be explained.  Music is magic, and sometimes, sheer glory.