Divine Music

…in which Uncle Duke reaches for the Eternal.

I confess I do not believe in a whole lot anymore. Over time, most of what I grew up believing has proven itself rather hollow and mostly baseless. Bad myth accounted for most of it. Although it sustained my parents well enough, it has not brought me great comfort. I have spent a lifetime sorting through it all.

Things temporal were the first to go. I arbitrarily chose 100,000 years as a guidepost. My reasoning was that if it hadn’t been around at least that long, it hadn’t stood the test of Time. That took care of You and Me and basically everything We have built. In one fell swoop.

That pretty much took care of God too—the Western One anyway. Although it is argued that God has been around forever, that He/She/It in fact invented Time, I don’t hear anyone claiming that God took any sort of active role in Universal affairs until Men and Women stood upright and evolved as sentient beings. Although God ostensibly created the Universe and Life as we know it, it appears He was at best a passive manager throughout the first 20 billion years or so. To hear those who seem to know about these things tell it, God was basically uninvolved until We came along, developed opposable thumbs and began grasping and inventing interesting vices. To say that this God is Human-centered is an immense understatement. Humans alone “are created in His Image and Likeness”? Come on! This strikes me as arrogant, dismissive and short-sighted. I’m sorry. I reject the Notion.

I am not without beliefs however. I do believe in Biology. It passes the 100,000 year test and has been operating by a very precise set of rules at least since cells began to divide and algae ruled the World. It is intensely organized, logical and does not play favorites. As we begin to understand the secret lives of bacteria and sperm whales, the way cells and species interact, the way the intricate details of Life play out on both microscopic and grand scales, the marvels of Biology are revealed. If one admires efficiency, it is both beautifully and brutally efficient. It is a system that is both unyielding and inventive. Biology works! I’m thinking about switching my major.

Lately I am increasingly drawn to those things fundamental and elementary. And nothing is more fundamental and elementary than Chemistry. It reduces everything to its most basic elements. And Chemistry predates Biology even. The rules of the chemical game are immutable and timeless. The equations simultaneously bore and confound me; but it is a marvelous system, and I am a big fan.

I also believe in Physics, Astronomy, Geology, Cosmology. All that stuff. I believe in Time so immense it is fearsome to contemplate. These subjects are all built on the premise of minuscule changes over incomprehensible Time. I might add that I don’t understand Them, hardly at all. Furthermore, I don’t believe anyone alive has much more than glimpsed Their Secrets. They are silent and irrevocable and awesome, perhaps beyond our comprehension. But I believe our Origin and our Destiny are waiting in that boundless expanse, that wonderful abyss, of the Undiscovered.

More than anything though, I believe in Music. Music was there at the Beginning. Music was in fact born simultaneously with Physics. Air passed from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. When it passed through a restriction, Energy was emitted in wave form. Which became Sound. Which became Music. It was born of the harmonic resonance of wood and metal and of vibrating chords in tension. It was born of the kinetic energy of one solid striking another and of the rhythm of ocean waves.

When the Animal world came along, they took Music from Physics to Art. They took it out of the world of random and into the world of subtlety and significance. They developed It the way horn players develop their craft. They gave It Shape---lyricism, tension and crescendo. They filled the media of air and water with transcendent Music. They created an Aesthetic of style and grace that was at once form and function. And We developed into that World.

Early Man understood the importance of Music. Prehistoric flutes, made up to 57,000 years ago, indicate the importance of Music to our Ancestors. The Musical instruments were more complex than the hunting tools. There was a reason for that infusion of energy into something that did not put meat on our bones or protect us from the elements. The Music was at our core then, and It remains so now.

The first thing we know is the baseline beat of our Mothers’ rhythmic heart, thumping away inches from our little aqueous homes. It is that profundo beat onto which we build melodies and harmonies and symphonies.

Music is the gateway to the soul. It is the passage to the heart. It fills voids we didn’t know we had and leads us to greater things. There are those famous endomorphines which flood our brains when we hear treasured Music. There is Music which makes us cry. Sometimes for no apparent reason. A chord touches remembrance and we are instantly linked to things past and profound.

Music hath charms, it is true, to touch angry souls. It can quiet the background noise and allow the calm to come and reside, even in the most tormented souls, if only for a time.

I believe in Music as Magic, as a medium which elevates and transforms and motivates without strings or wires or mirrors. It’s in the Ether and leaps across Time and Space, fires up crusty synapses and sets them free. We will be eternally linked to the Music that was playing when we were developing independent brains and unique ideas, when our glandular buckets were sloshing over and we left teenage juices on everything we touched. We hear that Music and we are transported to that time.

The Music resonates in ancestral caves and touches ancient roots. I find I am moved beyond reason by ancient Celtic rhythms. And the gentle voices of Gregorian Chant make my Spirit soar. I conclude I have been pre-tuned by my heritage to vibrate with Anglo-Saxon and Roman Catholic frequencies. It is literally in my Bones. Those somber beats and sweet dulcimer notes put me in a place of some mystery and clarity. I hear a bagpipe and I get chills. Long fiddle riffs heat my Kentucky blood and make my feet want to tap and dance. The Music reaches into a timeless place and helps to balance me in the here and now. Which is what Religion does for some. For me, it is the Music.

My sister’s son stares blankly at the wall. He is 29 and has lived longer than the doctors said he would. But his empty eyes are joyless and his body is tense. He can not speak, and he had not ever smiled. Until three years ago. Someone put on The Planets by Gustav Holst, and his eyes flickered somewhat. As the piece progressed, his hands began to relax. Then his legs, and finally his shoulders. And as the momentum built, a genuine, clear smile grew on his face. At the end, when the heavenly chorus came in, a small tear appeared in the corner of his eye. He was in the Presence of the Divine.

We had discovered the Key. For him, The Planets is a place of joy and liberation. It is an unexplained connection to emotion and feeling that we didn’t know existed. And it works every time. The Power of the Music overwhelms him. For him, it is a place celestial and full. For him, it is Truth and Light. It is the Universe speaking. For him, it is the Music that’s Divine.