The sounds of music

An attempt at some conclusions
at a time of world crisis

In these days of tumultuous world events of a kind that attempt to drag the human spirit ever downwards, we may feel the art of music a folly now, to be pursued in better times. That I found years ago is plainly a myth. As a boy I remember in the 1939/45 world conflict that music had an enormous influence. Whether light or serious, it was a diversion with the difference that it could penetrate minds to the degree of the listener's involvement with the experience.

The new challenges that have dawned upon us following the horrific events of 11 September have subsequently hardened into the stark truth of Good and Evil face to face in battle. This has to be won by the Western powers to save civilisation as we know it, and to protect the physical world from the destruction that biochemical warfare would unleash. That, some will say, downgrades the arts into an idle pastime, to be taken up again when the skies are cleared and it is safe to resume normal living.

Apart from the fact that nobody can forecast developments following conflict, the arts represent in toto the cream of Man's achievements in matters beyond the essentials of living. To us Music is an art calling upon the creativity of composers of all persuasions, with a pinnacle of those to whom this art has drawn Music of such quality as to place it apart, and of which it is impossible to describe in human terms.

Whatever may be the eventual fate of this physical world and its inhabitants, all supreme artistic achievements represent Truth as transmuted through the mind of Man.