Spirit

Spirit
flowing from the figer tips
transferring pain, joy, sorrow,
all emotions of the inner being
into the voice: the soul’s declaration to the world.
Voice; demands your acquaintance,
Is made
Known through its lyrical, rhythmic statement,
“Here Me Now!”.
As some friends and I sat in the Union listening to two pianoists imprint their personalities in the keys, stain the shared piano with their story, I closed my eyes and drifted away from my body, from my seat, from the first floor of the WPU,…from Pitt. I traveled into the music and began to listen isnide the notes. I pried through the song and became one with its meaning. The melodic repititions further engrained it into my memory, connecting me with the song, the keys, the players. This is the power of music.
Amidst all the choas, on offspring of the G20 summitt, which circumscribed our campus: the invasion/intrusion/overpopulation of the police, the protests, the riots, arrests that fueled a hollow bomb, music still managed to serve as an outlet. My friends and I were able to escape, for a little while, into a realm of peace.
Hidden beneath, in between, the rising of pitch, and the increasing volume is the tone.
The softer the volume the closer on comes to envisioning the song in a dream, listening to the whisper of the keys.
The whisper…
The whispering of the keys…
Adds to the loudness of Music’s history.
Music brings us all together. It has done so in the past, is still doing so in the present, and will continue in the futur. A perfect demonstration of the full extent of Music’s unifying powers was made paramount when the whole world (black, white, red, yellow, brown) mourned the death and celebrated the life of Michael Jackson. His music touched people of all ethnicities, cultures, religions, and beliefs. To illustrate this further, I was taught the Thriller dance by my white, republican friend from Philadelphia. Through music, the complexions are disregarded, all is forgotten and we just emerse ourselves in the song.
the pianoists got up to leave, the music stopped, and me and my friends drifted back into reality. I could stll hear the song resonating in me ears, the story, the spirit. I asked on of the pianoists, Reggie Wilkins, what music meant to him, he responded “Music is my life. An expression of who I am. One of the most powerful things on earth. It’s a universal language, an extension of my personality”. He couldn’t have been more correct as another Pitt pianoists put it, “[music] is an oppurtunity to escape through melodies and rhythms”. That is the power, the beauty, of music.