Ageless Power of Music Touches Everyone Along the Way

Power is the ability to do something or act in a particular way, especially as a faculty or quality. We all understand that electricity has power, a fast car has more power than a slow one and that a country’s leaders have power over their citizens.

The definition of power, provided here by the online Oxford Dictionary, is broad enough that one can also connect the word ‘power’ to subjective things such as persuasion, speech and music where there is no evidence of how much power they have (as opposed to the horsepower rating on your car’s engine).

Measuring the power of subjective concepts lacks the comparative facts and figures used in other areas, but the power is still there, still felt by the individual or group, still measured. But now the measurement is in emotional and psychological terms, not numbers and ratings. To share that measurement, humans use their personal vocabulary to express how the “power” affects them.

Music, like most subjective qualities of life, is a shared process where the power can be felt at various points, each time potentially having a different effect – the composer who feels that power when a newly written phrase carries the intent perfectly, the musician who was empowered and inspired by that day’s rehearsal or performance, and the listener, who upon hearing music, has their emotions stirred in a new direction.

That musical journey in itself has power, as it affects everyone it touches along the way, can be followed again and again, providing varied results each time, and has no time limit or expiration date. Music has ageless power.

Physicist Albert Einstein: “I see my life in terms of music.”

A message therapist recalling his school experiences: “It is no exaggeration that my K through 12 education in the arts changed the trajectory of my life.”

Author Kurt Vonnegut: “If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: ‘The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.’”

A music educator recalling a student quote: “Life without music is like a box of Crayola Crayons without colors.”

Musician Elton John: “Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.”

An early years special learning para-educator: “Music brings connection between parent and child. It gives joy in silliness, comfort through loved songs and can help make hard times easier. I could not do my job without music.”

Chinese philosopher and writer Lao Tzu: “Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.”

A retired music educator from Wisconsin: “Music is powerful because it can wire our brains for success not only in music, but in many other areas of life.... It takes a lot of creativity to turn some black notes on a page into an emotional experience!”

Author Leo Tolstoy: “Music is the shorthand of emotion.”

Teacher, Boy Scout volunteer, and mother of a challenged teenager: “As a student, band gave me a reason to go to school instead of work. As a student, my band director taught us that we could do the hard things (marching in the Calgary Stampede parade). As a young adult, my band director was one of the reasons I went to school to be an educator.”

Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel: “Music does not replace words; it gives tone to the words.”

And Albert Einstein again on his scientific work: “It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception.”

Music touches everyone differently and everyone the same. Music creates emotions, brings to mind memories, helps us think and feel and work and play and enjoy. It is universal and individual, shared and kept private, joyous and grief filled. No two pieces of music are alike, and no two performances on any single piece of music are the same. Music is part of our greatest moments and our deepest sadnesses. Music has power.