FIGHTING SILENCE
I was almost ready to post my blog on SILENCE. I had reactivated my own meditation practice while sheltering in place, albeit not very regularly nor for long periods at a time. I craved to be enveloped in a meditative spirit that would evoke a deep sense of peace and engender new insights. I fought silence, when it brought me back to memories deeply buried. I fought it, when sitting in silence made my physically uncomfortable. Occasionally, I found it – that silence that allowed me to be with myself, accept myself, and be myself.
Then the world awakened! Marches to honor George Floyd and to protest the brutal killing of black people by police sent massive vibrations through previously silent city streets with chants of “Black Lives Matter!” Silent tributes to Mr. Floyd and other black people who died in police custody asked us to remember George Floyd’s final 8 minutes and 46 seconds of life (You can observe the silence at George Floyd’s memorial service here.)
Suddenly, silence meant inaction, avoiding taking a stand, and allowing injustice to continue. This was silence that I needed to fight against. I had just been elected President of the International Association for Music & Medicine, and decided to use that platform to send this personal message:
“As the world begins to reawaken from the sleep induced by COVID-19, awareness of injustice, disparity, inequality, and discrimination is keen and palpable. In the 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence observed by many of us in the United States to acknowledge the final minutes of George Floyd’s life, we looked inside our own hearts and souls to honor a human life and to acknowledge the brutality of power.
Silence compels us to stop, to embody, and to feel the weight of what seemed to many of us like eternity – a slow death of righteousness and morality. Silence may shout at us to take action, but how?
As a music therapist and President of the International Association for Music & Medicine, I have asked myself what I can do at this tumultuous time. Certainly, music and rhythm arouse movement, momentum, and energy, and guide us to move and chant in synchrony. We become one, united in a common cause, through our marches for action and also in our empathy for a troubled world.
Throughout history, music has brought us together. Now perhaps it is time to sing the songs that can move us forward, to play our instruments to express both outrage and hope, and to compose music that communicates the important messages for our time and for our future. Wherever we are in the world, whatever language we speak, whenever we have something to say, music can be a courier of unity and peace. Let each of us play and sing our part, and maybe the anthem, We Shall Overcome, shall be heard.”
You can listen to the message here.
MAKING CHANGE
In the silence following this speech, my rhetoric felt impotent. Now what? So what? I felt the impact of a shaken world even more viscerally. Anyone can say anything, but how can that create lasting change?
In “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,” Thomas Kuhn talks about how real change comes about in science. He says that the greatest paradigm shifts – changes in the way we think about and approach things – do not occur with discovery building on discovery, in a systematic way. Rather, significant changes happen when our theories fall apart or when we witness something totally unexpected. I like to think that when I feel the world I know crashing down, I can build a future that is new and better than anything it could have been before.
It was after the murder of President John F. Kennedy that Leonard Bernstein told us: “Our music will never again be quite the same. This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
ENDURING DIFFICULT TIMES THROUGH MUSIC
How can each of us apply our own profound and sacred creations – our music – to change the world or to heal our world?
* Silence might provide the space you need to contemplate a message to the world. What do you wish to communicate? To enhance its impact, express this idea through chant, song, improvised piece, or instrumentals. Seal your message in music that imparts the feelings, as well as the ideas.
* Maybe your message needs to be for you. What do you need to hear or transmit in order to feel like you are able to make a difference? Some of the personal affirmations from the “Music Brings Focus” on April 8, 2020 might be relevant now.
* What will you remember from this time? Create a musical tribute that reflects your response now. When you look back, perhaps this new musical creation will remind you that inspiration, imagination, and ingenuity guided your reactions.
* Reveal how you feel or how you want to feel through music. Whether you are producing, composing, or hearing music, this expression may help you cope or confront what you are experiencing. Music is capable of conveying and processing your feelings better than any words.
* What is your superpower? What personal characteristics do you own that can help the world be a better place? Generosity? Compassion? Gratitude? Concern for others? All these can be shown through your musical gifts to others. You don’t need to write your own music; your playlists for different moods and emotions can help others cope, too.
MUSIC IS…
I have to believe that everything I do to maintain my own inner peace will create a more peaceful world. I have to believe that the music I bring forth – whether through composing, performing, improvising, sharing, or listening – is capable of creating a better world. Music is… so many things. Listen here to “Music is…” composed and conducted by Salvador Brotons, performed by members of the International Association for Music & Medicine and the World Federation of Music Therapy, a virtual ensemble that gathered after those organizations’ international meetings were cancelled, due to the pandemic.
From “Music is…” - a virtual ensemble of iAMM & WFMT