Today, quite frankly, has just been one of those days. Not those days when everything goes wrong, or you can't seem to do anything right, but one of those days. One of those "all I want to do is curl up in a ball with the cover over my head and wait until it all goes away" kind of days. The kind that sneaks up on you when you least expect it, causing nothing but havoc and trouble wherever it goes.
I don't really do well with those kind of days.
But, fortunately, I have something that never fails to restore my sanity. At least in part. Today, I came really, really close to sending a message to my dear M. le conducteur telling him not to pick me up for wind band today because... well, to be honest, that's as far as I got. Because the end of that sentence was indeed "I'm having one of those days". Which, unfortunately, doesn't translate so well. At least not with my translation skills, anyway. And besides, it's a crappy reason. So I went. And of course, I had a good time. Not because of the sheer calibre of the company (although they are all very nice), but because of the music.
Now don't get me wrong. We're not exactly playing anything ground-breakingly moving (in fact we're currently working on a 'Stevie Wonder Medley', a 'British Folk Song March' and something called 'Rabbi Jacob' that includes a Klezmer clarinet solo in the middle), but that's not the point. The point is that, whatever anyone says, music has magical powers beyond anything you can dream up. And I am not the only one who thinks so. Even the great Albus Dumbledore admitted that music was "a magic far beyond all we do here" (go ahead and judge :-P).
Music provides an entirely new landscape, a new medium, a new dimension, if you like, to which you can escape, start afresh, make it mean what you want it to mean. No one will ever hear exactly the same thing when listening to a piece of music, and it is impossible to explain to other people exactly what you do hear, because it is something so personal, so much a part of the self, that there is no way that anyone else but you can understand.
Music can be, and is, a completely individual thing. And yet, it brings people together in ways that are unimaginable. From four friends improvising rock ballads in their garage, to a full-blown symphony orchestra playing Beethoven, music is about people coming together with one aim; about people from all walks of life joining up to make a multitude of sounds that somehow fit together to make something magical.
When I pick up my clarinet, it's like all the clouds disappear, like nothing else exists except me, my instrument, and the page (if there is one). I'm able to breathe deeply again, to see clearly, as if nothing was ever wrong.
Music has the power to provide solace, to bring out emotions that we didn't know we even had, to chase away the ones we don't want, and bring out the best in us. Imagine a world without music. A world without that colour, that harmony, that completeness. Unimaginable, no?
I don't know where I would be without music. But luckily, I never have to find out. So even when one of those days does happen, there's always something there to catch you, to help you find your feet again. Or at least find your ears.
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