The Music of the Light

Let me tell you a story. Or, rather, let me retell you a story.

The year is 1881, the place the Opera Populaire. A young girl named Christine has just replaced the Opera's leading lady and enchants the proprietors with her beautiful voice. But someone else hears her too, a mysterious figure with a masked face known only as the Phantom. He is enthralled with her music, but cannot bring himself to speak to her. The weeks pass and Christine continues to see him peering from the shadows, always watching, always afraid. Finally her curiosity gets the better of her and she follows him down beneath the opera to his wretched abode, a ramshackle dwelling among cast off set pieces and abandoned furniture. Even though his shame is so great that he drives her away, she pities him and continues to venture down to the dark underbowels to visit him in his dark existence. When she discovers that the only way he will ever listen to her is through song, she begins to sing, pouring out her heart in a beautiful melody of hope and light. And this is what she sang:

Night time fades and, waken each sensation
Darkness flee, and stir imagination
Silently commence to abandon your defense

Slowly, sturd’ly, dawn unfurls its splendor
Grasp it, reach it, powerful yet tender
Turn your face away from the shadows oh so gray
Turn your thoughts away from cold and silent night
And listen to the music of the light

Come away and leave behind your darkest dreams
Wash yourself of the life you knew before
Come with me, let your spirit start to soar
You will live as you've never lived before

Strongly, sharply, music shall empower you
Hear it, grasp it, let it now awake you
Open up your mind, leave those nightmares behind
Draw closer to the flame you cannot fight
The fires of the music of the light

Let your mind start a journey in this strange new world
Leave all thoughts of the life you knew before
Let your soul take you where you long to be
Only then can you truly be free

Leaping, running, sweet intoxication
Hold it, trust it, savor each sensation
Let your life begin, let your older self dive in
To the power of the music in your sight
The power of the music of the light

He alone can make your song take flight
Let Him sing the music of the light!

Listen to the Sound

Open your window.

What do you hear?

The twittering of birds on a quiet street?

The hubbub of traffic at a busy intersection?

The sawing of cicadas in the woods?

The crash of surf on the shore?

The silence of snow falling from the sky?

The moaning of the wind as it rushes past?

The murmur of folk passing on the sidewalk?

The hum of distant machinery?

I'll tell you what I hear:

All of them.

Running around inside my head like ghosts of a memory.

The sounds of all the places I've been, or seen, or heard.

And there's one more sound.

It's the Still, Small Voice of the Great Musician, spinning His melodies and cacophonies of sound throughout my existence.

It connects every sound together, weaving them into the single, unified sound that is Earth. All of Creation is woven together into this single song.

Many parts are dark and broken, shadows of what they were meant to be. Some parts have altogether dropped out of the orchestra. Some parts have tried to place themselves above the others.

But the orchestra remains, still sounding the Creator's praise.

In Which I Discover European Rock

Seem like music has been the topic of the week lately. So I thought I'd do a post on how I entered the current chapter of my musical life and broadened my musical repertoire considerably.

So, ya'll know I like books. I mean, I write them. But I like them reading them too, of course. And given the opportunity, I will talk about those I have read to no end. So, it should come as no surprise that I am part of Literary Discussion Group, which, of course, discuses literature.

Anyways, sometime in January of last year, the book we chose to discuss next was J.R.R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion. Led by the incomparable Mrs. B, we debated and dissected everything from Finwe to the Fall of Numenor, and everything in between. Favorite characters were voted on (Turin Turambar got my vote), favorite tales discussed, and favorite moments revisited. But towards the end music was brought up, and Mrs. B. mentioned that she had found a band that wrote Silmarillion-inspired music. The only problem was, they were rather hard-core rock.

Naturally, I looked them up as soon as I got home. Thus I discovered Blind Guardian, a speed-metal/rock band whose epic themes and soaring lyrics caught my attention just as much as the crazy guitar soloing. And when they focused on just the former two... perfect:

So what did I do? What any sensible music-lover does. I created a Pandora station. And was immediately introduced to the wonderful world of European epic rock. Blind Guardian has a male singer, but I soon found Within Temptation, a band with a female singer who took my appreciation of epic to an entirely new level.

And then I discoverd the pièce de résistance.... a Swedish band known as Sabaton. The first song I heard by them was about D-day. The next about U-boats. The next about the bombing of Hiroshima. The next about the battle of Midway. And I was hooked. Not only were their lyrics about honor, and glory, and sacrifice, and courage, but there were these wonderful references to mythology and a unique contrast of heaven and hell. And top it all, they have an entire album inspired by Sun Tzu's Art of War.

In a world where most of today's pop music is hardly worthy of the name 'music' and full of less-than-savory references and questionable subject matter, it's refreshing to hear music that has depth and meaning.