The Power of Music, healing the soul

There is no quicker way to bring joy to your heart than listening to a favourite piece of music.
 Sometimes it can be the words of the song that seem to express what you are feeling. Women's magazines might suggest that when you break up with your boyfriend you should dance madly on a table singing Gloria Gaynor's 'I will survive' at the top of your voice, and then you might feel better.

I 'm sure we've all got a sound track going on in our heads starting from the moment we were born.
First of all the songs that our mothers used to send us off to sleep followed by nursery rhymes that only later might seem slightly ridiculous, 'Three blind mice, Humpty dumpty etc.
In my case these were followed by Rock and Roll, the Beatles, the Stones and then all the eighties and nineties wonderful music.
When we went to see 'Forrest Gump' I came out a complete mess, bathed in tears. The soundtrack was that of my youth, those special formative years between fifteen and twenty.
For a long time I couldn't listen to classical music at all. the moment the strains of a violin announced a classical piece I could only see a lonely school girl, a dark house and no-one there.
If you watch a horror film and turn the sound down it doesn't look as frightening at all.
It was my husband that made me feel the joy that there is in classical music, listening to it live at concerts in villas. Haydn's string quartet on F major for example, or the Moldova, Smetana.

Today I was thinking about the healing power of music while listening to a street busker and the first two verses of a poem by Wordsworth came to my mind.

The Power of Music

An Orpheus! An Orpheus, yes Faith may grow bold,
And take to herself all the wonders of old
Near the stately Pantheon you'll meet with the same,
In the street that from Oxford hath borrowed its name.

His station is there, and he works on the crowd,
He sways them with harmony merry and loud,
He fills with his power all their hearts to the brim
Was aught ever heard like his fiddle and him................................

William Wordsworth (1770 - 1850)

In the opening lines of the poem the street fiddler is identified as Orpheus.
Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. He was known for his ability to charm all living things and even stones.
In modern terms I suppose he brought out the best in people and that is what music can do.

I have given you a clip from the lovely film 'Amelie' to listen to. It's one of my favourite films and as it's Summer I love French music because it makes me feel like I'm on holiday. I hope you enjoy it too.