Music has the power to change lives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Music has the power to change lives - Essay Example Music is about being sensitive to sounds †¦ about listening to sounds you’ve never heard before. These simple sentences speak volumes in terms of a philosophical background for modern music curricula. For ‘being sensitive to sounds’ read ‘being sensitive to what someone somewhere else in the world is saying through musical sound’ (Hurworth, 2003). Music surrounds our lives, we hear it on the radio, on television, from our car and home stereos. We come across it in the mellifluous tunes of a classical concert or in the devotional strains of a bhajan, the wedding band, or the reaper in the fields breaking into song to express the joy of life. Even warbling in the bathroom gives us a happy start to the day. Since time immemorial, music has infused a spark of the Divine in human beings. Stating the esoteric nature of music, Sufi saint and musician Hazrat Inayat Khan said: "The true harmony of music comes from the harmony of the soul. That music alone can be called real which comes from the harmony of the soul, its true source, and when it comes from there, it must appeal to all souls" (Sokhal, 1998). Many argue that music is not a natural kind. Indeed, following a conventional dictionary definition of music - "The art of combining sounds of voices or instruments to achieve beauty of form and expression of emotion" - it would be difficult to do so.