Art

Without a doubt, music has often succeeded in inspiring my strongest emotional moments. it has to be said those emotions are stronger than if (say) a bereavement happened in the family. This is no exaggeration. It's not that I don't feel emotion at such family events, but that the emotion does not emerge so suddenly, forcefully and spontaneously as it does with music. I would add that the sort of music that does this for me was probably created by musicians who were experiencing being in a flow state at the time of recording or performance.

A professional musician and former colleague recently explained to me the feeling of creating music while being in a flow state, and how it was often synchronized between players on the same stage or in the same studio. This came as no great surprise to me, as I have observed stage and studio musicians whilst acting in a support capacity. Frequently, I would drop into flow just watching. By making that comment, my former colleague effectively communicated to me that he had some understanding of my self-identification. He almost self-identified himself, when young. But, he has had a successful musical career, and I imagine that success was enough for him to forego diagnosis.

My father could be considered as a semi-pro musician. In one of the more striking 'family' poems, the author described my father as a person easily lost to the rest of his family by his total absorption in music. I first heard that poem decades ago, before he was diagnosed with dementia. Even on first hearing, it struck a very strong chord with me. The author obviously felt cheated by that absorption, and I suppose I might also have been cheated of something in a similar fashion. He was often a rather unemotional person. I have obviously inherited some of that. Others in the family haven't. They can at least now probably appreciate some of my issues, but the author is still perhaps unaware of them.  But as the author continues to occasionally read that poem in my presence, one wonders if the author is actually observing my reactions for some slight flicker of unmasked emotion. The author has always emoted strongly in poetry.

I love music and as you say, it will often bring out emotions deeper and stronger than any events in life.

I've had songs I have listened to hundreds of times and I have been really surprised to find out what they're actually about. 

I love music and as you say, it will often bring out emotions deeper and stronger than any events in life.

I've had songs I have listened to hundreds of times and I have been really surprised to find out what they're actually about.