{"id":796,"date":"2008-02-23T00:05:14","date_gmt":"2008-02-23T08:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/23\/music-and-the-soul\/"},"modified":"2013-02-07T18:44:43","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T02:44:43","slug":"music-and-the-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/23\/music-and-the-soul\/","title":{"rendered":"music and the soul"},"content":{"rendered":"

I got home today and felt so tired, so just absolutely empty and wiped, that I decided that going for a brisk walk was just the right medicine. I grabbed my iPod, loaded with updated podcasts of shows that I listen to when time allows, and went to the multi-use trail that runs past the back of our house.<\/p>\n

One of the first podcasts I listened to was new to me, a show called “Bookworm” from KCRW<\/a>, the NPR affiliate in Santa Monica, CA, and home to many fine locally-produced shows.<\/p>\n

The person interviewed on the episode I listened to<\/a> was Oliver Sacks, author of the acclaimed book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain<\/em><\/a>. It was an engrossing half hour, one that I highly recommend you listen to. I’m planning on getting my hands on this book as soon as possible, it sounds like a must-read. The way that Sacks talks about the ability of music to trigger pathways in the brain that have been destroyed by disease, or how music communicates the incommunicable to us is truly profound.<\/p>\n

I was thinking of this when I read Sam Bergman’s moving post<\/a> about his most recent concert on the Minnesota Orchestra’s tour to the outer reaches of Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Professional musicians are much like ER doctors or paramedics – we often suppress our emotions as we work to perform some of the most profound and deeply moving masterpieces ever conceived – but sometimes, either because of an external or internal event or trigger, we are unable to hold on to our emotional detachment, and we are powerfully reminded of awesome power of great music to transform our interior and exterior lives.<\/p>\n

I recall playing the concert in memory of the victims of 9\/11 just days after the attack, and in fact playing a concert in Salem on the night of the 11th – and the incredible impact of playing Nimrod from the Enigma Variations.<\/p>\n

I remember playing the Barber Adagio at the memorial service for a fallen colleague.<\/p>\n

I remember playing the John Adams piece On the Transmigration of Souls<\/em> along with the Mozart Requiem<\/em>, and feeling the tension in the hall as some 2,500 souls listened to the street sounds that begin the piece, and we all began the shared journey together back to that fateful, gloriously clear and blue, but ultimately tragic September day in New York City. I listened to a woman in the row closest to us weep at the first performance, and I struggled not to join her. I then felt, with the opening of the Mozart Requiem<\/em>, the beginnings of healing, atonement, and closure that only music can provide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got home today and felt so tired, so just absolutely empty and wiped, that I decided that going for a brisk walk was just the right medicine. I grabbed my iPod, loaded with updated podcasts of shows that I listen to when time allows, and went to the multi-use trail that runs past the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[148,115,2],"tags":[416,594],"class_list":["post-796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-john-adams","tag-transmigration-of-souls"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-cQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":550,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/26\/musicians-convenience-over-fidelity\/","url_meta":{"origin":796,"position":0},"title":"musicians: convenience over fidelity?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting article by Anthony Tommasini from this Sunday's New York Times, which talks about the relatively inferior sound quality of the typical mp3 player (i.e., iPod) compared to a top-end audiophile quality hi-fi stereo system. It would seem to be the triumph of wi-fi over hi-fi. It's true. When\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21377,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2021\/05\/16\/new-podcast-episode-with-greg-ewer-and-ron-blessinger-of-45th-parallel-universe\/","url_meta":{"origin":796,"position":1},"title":"new podcast episode with Greg Ewer and Ron Blessinger of 45th Parallel Universe","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The newest episode of the Classical Currents Podcast is now available. I talked with 45th Parallel Universe founder Greg Ewer and Executive Director Ron Blessinger about the beginnings of the organization, how it survived (and even thrived) during the pandemic, and maybe a few OG Oregon Symphony stories as well.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "45th Parallel Universe"","block_context":{"text":"45th Parallel Universe","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/45th-parallel-universe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ep-008-45thParallelUniverse-sm.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ep-008-45thParallelUniverse-sm.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ep-008-45thParallelUniverse-sm.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/ep-008-45thParallelUniverse-sm.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7865,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/09\/19\/audition-discoveries\/","url_meta":{"origin":796,"position":2},"title":"audition discoveries","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I served on another audition committee this week. This time around it was for our assistant principal second violin opening. I think this is around the tenth audition committee I've been on - actually, I'll take an inventory right now: I've sat on committees for four viola auditions, associate concertmaster,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5491,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/27\/former-oso-musician-on-the-loose-in-rio\/","url_meta":{"origin":796,"position":3},"title":"former oso musician on the loose in Rio!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Chris Perry, who retired from the Oregon Symphony percussion section at the end of last season, sounds like she's having an amazing time in Rio de\u00a0Janeiro. \u00a0Here's an excerpt from her first blog post in mid-September 2010: I am just getting settled in my new apartment in Rio \u2013 it\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/chrisperryrio-250x187.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7355,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/02\/26\/on-greatness\/","url_meta":{"origin":796,"position":4},"title":"on greatness","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday night we played our Itzhak Perlman special concert. It was a one-night affair, featuring Perlman playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Works by Schubert and Brahms\/Schoenberg rounded out the evening. The dress rehearsal for the concert was Saturday morning. Perlman joined us (after we worked on the Schubert) for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/02\/perlman.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":164,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/01\/09\/beethoven-in-lake-wobegone\/","url_meta":{"origin":796,"position":5},"title":"beethoven in lake wobegone","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This week we're doing a program which includes Beethoven's Fourth Symphony (along with Ives' Unanswered Question, a percussion concerto by Christopher Rouse (with soloist Colin Currie), and Wagner's Overture to Die Meistersinger). It's been a while since I'd listened to a recording of any of the Beethoven symphonies (the last\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}