the power to move

on my other blogs i ended often writing about music. knowing this fact and reflecting on, as well as considering how i'd like to take a more serious and dedicated attempt at focusing my passion for music, i started this blog [yet another blog in my silly blogging history].

a topic touched on in many posts of past, but one i feel yet to focus on, is the power of music. clearly a very broad topic, i make no attempt at exhaust the possible thoughts on the matter. rather, i only aim to share some of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences; hoping it will mean something to someone else...

the picture above appears on my regular blog. i use it again here because, not only is the picture moving and powerful when one knows the context, but the performance it comes from was one of the most powerfully moving performances i have seen. after a stirring and powerful performance of "Stronger" the lights dimmed low at the 2008 grammy awards. a lone light shone down on kanYe west, who had taken on a much more somber appearance from the led lit glasses and coat [which he still donned, just with the lights turned off]. he began to perform a rendition of the song "Hey Mama" from Late Registration to honor his recently passed mother. actually singing out the words of the song and changing them to the occasion, kanYe momentarily stopped my world.

his vocals not that of a trained singer, the performance still overpowered. the beauty in the simplicity of the performance [quite the opposite of what someone thinks of when imagining kanYe west] simply underscored the emotional depth and magnitude of the song and the performance. it is a beautiful tribute to his mother, full of emotion and love and adoration for an important figure in his life. because people play similar roles in our lives it is possible to relate, to understand, to empathize, to be moved, to be touched. this was true of the song as originally recorded but even more so of the grammy performance.

beyond the song itself, there is the power and force of the emotional performance in this specific instance. one of the brilliant things about music is the emotion the performer can convey [which can be different from the emotion conveyed from just the music itself as written vs. performed]: it's a two-way street in which the music is a manifestation of the artist's emotion and also the emotional effect the music has on the listener. and part of the beauty of music is when these two come together, the emotions expressed thru the music perfectly matching what we feel in our own personal experience of it.

so many facets, so much to explore, so much to find. personally, i believe in the power of music and i believe it is capable of most anything. from simply getting goosebumps as i walk, listening to trance music...to the ability to cause one to pause and actually understand, appreciate, and fully take in a moment...to the New York Philharmonic performing in North Korea, bringing people to tears and creating a sense of hope and showing just how peaceful we can be given the proper circumstances...to simply conveying feelings such as those of your love for another...music can change the world.

to hear copies of kanYe's performance, check out the following links...

1. an unedited, raw version
2. a cleaned up, smoother version

each version comes with its positives as well negatives...but honestly it was an amazing performance.