Music surrounds us. It whispers in the trees, and yammers among the multitudes. Sometimes you have to listen to hear it, but there is always music. Whether it is the babbling song of a brook, or the minimalist crank of an engine, or the tread of boots on snow. But there is music and there is music, and when true music, the great music, is played, the sing itself leaps and frolics to the rhythm of the music.
Great music is sometimes about the form and technical mastery of the music itself, but this is hardly what truly makes it great. Great music is great precisely because it connects at the level of the heart, where we feel things that our muddle brains only dimly sense. Music unbars the soul. It reveals what we would rather keep hidden, it hides what we would display, it unifies a divided humanity.
All of this is to say that sometimes songs get stuck in your head. Currently, for that is the old sea shanty "Rollin' Down to Maui." This is a good ol' bawdy sea shanty, full of things such as rum and swearing and the Maui girls. It can be taken as nothing more than a working song, perhaps something used to keep rhythm on a windlass or while rowing. This is the academic understanding of the song.
However, the words are more than a mere expression of sexual longing and the fantasies of frozen sailors. The song is about whalers sailing out of the Kamchatka Sea. They been on the seas for half a year, freezing in the arctic, seeking the precious oil that once powered the world. The imagery is primarily that of a storm, a gale, and "thank God we're homeward bound."
And the song is in my head because I too am homeward bound. Life can be hellish, even when we are seeking what is most precious. Those who desire beauty, or love, or justice, or mercy, will always be disappointed. We are blowing before the gale, a gale not so much of life as of heart and feeling and emotion. We are headed for the coconut fronds and tropical glades of Maui, something far ahead but still so desirable.
But which is preferable? Should we live forever in Maui, without whale oil or singing? This is obviously impossible - these are whalers after all. We must risk Kamchatka in order to reach Maui. Risk the frost and the ice, me boys. Maui is never more than half a year away.
Great music is sometimes about the form and technical mastery of the music itself, but this is hardly what truly makes it great. Great music is great precisely because it connects at the level of the heart, where we feel things that our muddle brains only dimly sense. Music unbars the soul. It reveals what we would rather keep hidden, it hides what we would display, it unifies a divided humanity.
All of this is to say that sometimes songs get stuck in your head. Currently, for that is the old sea shanty "Rollin' Down to Maui." This is a good ol' bawdy sea shanty, full of things such as rum and swearing and the Maui girls. It can be taken as nothing more than a working song, perhaps something used to keep rhythm on a windlass or while rowing. This is the academic understanding of the song.
However, the words are more than a mere expression of sexual longing and the fantasies of frozen sailors. The song is about whalers sailing out of the Kamchatka Sea. They been on the seas for half a year, freezing in the arctic, seeking the precious oil that once powered the world. The imagery is primarily that of a storm, a gale, and "thank God we're homeward bound."
And the song is in my head because I too am homeward bound. Life can be hellish, even when we are seeking what is most precious. Those who desire beauty, or love, or justice, or mercy, will always be disappointed. We are blowing before the gale, a gale not so much of life as of heart and feeling and emotion. We are headed for the coconut fronds and tropical glades of Maui, something far ahead but still so desirable.
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