Bella Musica

Tomorrow is my big road trip. I’ll be driving for 5 or 6 hours, much of it through countryside that was ground smooth and flat during the ice age. Not much to see … the occasional tree, a clump of cows, a few farms dotting the landscape. The company of music is essential on a trip like this.

I’m a rocker girl, and such selection has always been first choice for long hauls for me. But lately I’ve been more interested in how a song can move me on the inside, deeper than toe tapping and seat dancing and hair flinging. Sometimes I’m in a mood for feeling music, not just listening to it.

Have you ever listened to a song that really grabbed you musically, but something about the words wasn’t right? They fell short, or went down the wrong path, or just simply didn’t work for you. That can really take some sparkle out of the symphony. You may have even thought, this music is incredible, but sheesh, I could have written better lyrics than that mess!

I’m not down on vocals – in fact I love them. The human voice is one of the most beautiful of musical instruments. The problem isn’t voice, but language. The problem with language is that it is too limited. Too basic for all that is yearned to be expressed. The writer often struggles with this same hurdle, wrangling for the right words to capture what they want to say. Why is it so difficult?

Because language, in many ways, is too primitive.

I have a section of CDs in my library that are in foreign languages. Some might find it annoying to listen to music that you cannot understand and sing along. But there’s a special niche this category fills in my heart. Spanish, Italian, Celtic … I am not fluent in any of these tongues, but it doesn’t matter. I listen, and the vocals reach me on a much more sensual level. The meaning of the words does not cloud and distort the haunting beauty of the voice. The tones can sweep around me, soak into my heart as the edge of the sea soaks into the sand - and become a part of my energy. Not by their individual definitions, but simply by being.

Many languages will accompany me on my journey tomorrow. I may not understand, but I will comprehend. Sometimes only words which are not defined in our minds deserve the company of melody and harmony.

It is then we can hear the voices of angels.