The Future of Music

I have come to realize through my life that passions once thought to be in the past can come back with an unpredictable force. Music will always be a massive part of my life, and the life of my family. I gave up dreams, knowing that it was best for my family, but giving something up doesn't always mean forever.

Music is life. It is a simple statement which I believe is fact. Whereever you listen, you can find a simple beauty in the notes played around you. A song can forever imprint itself into your psyche and bring back emotions once thought forgotten. I often find myself near tears as I listen to a song from my past. I do not cry because it is sad, but because I can sometimes see what could have been. We all have those moments of clarity about our past, and mine always seems to have a theme song accompanying it.

I once asked my music instructor why it is that music can bring something once forgotten to the forefront of our mind once more. His response was simply this: Our ears often hear things we don't register in the moment. During a time of deep emotional states, our brain will register everything about that moment that made it special. A single song can remind us of our best and worst time.

Historically, music has been used to bring pleasure, pain, fear and happiness. We can listen to compositions of Richard Wagner's today and feel a sense of fear and pain, never knowing that he was the favored composer of Adolf Hitler himself. Music is created to invoke the emotions of the composer, how they feel and think. I was once told while composing a piece, "do not worry about the theory behind the music, write what is in your heart." Knowing that music is written in such a manner is the real reason it is important to all ages.

Some will wonder now why I am writing something like this, which seems to be purely opinion in content. I write this because of the importance that music should have on the development of our youth. Today's pop culture seems to be losing touch with the musical elements of life. Most people can name the top hits from Taylor Swift or Beyoncé, but couldn't name a single classical composer. Music can be used to bring history to life for our children and I truly believe that we need preserve our cultural past, in order to ensure we have a better future. If we place the same emphasis on music in school as we do the athletic department, maybe we will have a future that enlightens our hearts and minds. Whether you believe music is important or not is purely one's own opinion, but the value within our lives would certainly be less without it.