The great American composer, conductor and educator Leonard Bernstein once said, “music can name the unnamable and communicate the unknowable.” Bernstein’s succinct and powerful expression reveals music’s power to speak to our collective hearts and express something of our greater potential as spiritual beings. After all, humans have been making music for a very long time.
The earliest instruments, bone flutes, date to 40,000 years ago, and it is likely that vocal music existed long before that. As individuals, our musical journey begins in utero. A fetus can hear at approximately 20 weeks of age. Among the first musical sounds informing the human consciousness must be a mother’s heartbeat.
As a music educator — and a parent of musically involved children — I see the benefits of musical study among diverse learners. These benefits include developing self-esteem, work habits, critical thinking, and building strong social ties. While not the exclusive province of music specifically or the arts generally, all of these benefits are inexorably tied to musical study. They portend not only benefits to individuals but serve social good. Musical study, I suggest, encourages us to be our best selves.
The community value of music is also inestimable. Music heightens the experience of religious worship, encourages social dancing, gives voice to inner angst and connects people to their past. The last value is expressed in a truism among piano salespersons. When showing an instrument, the salesperson should play the No. 1 hit from the calendar year when the potential customer was 16 years old.
Music is the gateway to memory and nostalgia is a powerful motivator. English philosopher Anthony Palmer connected music to its social function in describing a parade without a marching band as “a balloon without air.” Like the very air we breathe, music is an invisible but essential component of society and culture.
Sheridan is fortunate to have robust musical institutions and performing arts groups. We are blessed with outstanding school music programs and a plethora of strong community arts organizations. I can’t think of another community our size boasting the quality and quantity of musical ensembles, choirs, community theater and other performing arts organizations thriving in Sheridan.
I often remark to friends, family and colleagues unfamiliar with Sheridan that here, the arts are not a spectator sport. Here, we “do” the arts. All this is to say, if you are interested in singing, learning a new instrument or dusting off an older instrument and picking it up again, now is the time to do it. You’ll connect with an essential human activity at least 40,000 years old. You’ve been listening to music since before you were born. More importantly, you will improve yourself and help build your community. Your future self will thank you.
Mark Elliot Bergman is Sheridan College director of strings and orchestral studies.
