What’s music got to do with it?

I’ve been asked if we’ll cut art and music from our schools in these tight budget times. I’d like to answer that question by telling you a little about my weekend.   I listened to A Prairie Home Companion on Saturday wondering how Garrison Keillor would handle the whole Haiti situation.  Sometimes there are events that just can’t be ignored by anyone in the broadcast business.    I should have guessed.  He talked a little about how horrible the situation is and how we all need to send help to Haiti (yes, we do) and then he started with a heartfelt song, a blues song that went “God, please don’t turn Your back on me….”  Soon the whole audience was singing (and me at home).  Sunday, I attended our annual program to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr which featured student essays about Dr. King and…..music: great jazz by the Washington-Lee Jazz Band and wonderful hymns and spirituals by a combined choir from all the historically black churches in Arlington.  Soon the whole audience was clapping and singing in honor of this great man.  My weekend began Friday with the first Washington-Lee pyramid choral concert which featured all the elementary and middle schools that feed into Washington-Lee (hence the pyramid reference).  In the end all the choirs joined together and the audience was singing along and clapping.

I can’t imagine life without music.  People everywhere turn to music.   Music is there for us when we are happy or sad, in a crowd or feeling lonely.  Performing music teaches reading and math, teamwork, the value of preparation and practice.  That makes music a great educational tool, but music is more than that. Music speaks for us when we can’t find the words.   As musician Art Blakely put it, music washes “away the dust of everyday life.”   

Tuesday the 19th is the second anniversary of Kennan’s death.   I’ve often turned to singing songs when I’m alone to help get through these two years, folk songs and hymns mostly.  They speak to the human condition and have comforted people for centuries as they’ve comforted me.     Cut music and the arts from our schools?   No way.