The Miracle of Music
Monsignor Charles Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington posts regularly. Recently he had some reflections on the importance of music that climaxed with a remarkable video.
Scripture says the Lord puts music in our hearts and that many, by it will be summoned to faith: The Lord set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD. (Psalm 40:3-4)
Yes, music can often reach where mere words cannot.
In this remarkable video, there is a older man, Henry, who, likely due to seizures or other age-related factors, had largely turned inward. In fact his very posture illustrates well St. Augustine’s remarkable diagnosis of our problem: curvatus in se (turned in on himself).
Henry’s daughter remembers a lively vivacious man who quite literally danced through life a had such a joix de vivre. But in the last ten years he had shut down and turned in.
Then the miracle, a miracle in something ordinary, yet mystical: music. Wait till you see how it awakens Henry. Quite an astonishing difference. Yes, and suddenly there came the discovery for the staff of the nursing home, and Henry’s daughter, that there was someone “alive inside” Henry’s aging body. Alive indeed, the human soul still deeply touched by the good, the true, and the beautiful.
Henry says when he hears music, “I feel loved….the Lord came to me and made me a holy man…So he gave me these sounds.”
The whole post and the video to which he refers is here.
Great clip! Oliver Sacks’s book on music contains remarkable stories. For example, Parkinson’s patients who cannot walk can dance. Disturbingly, some people hear music off and on, or even nonstop, that isn’t there. It is not like a tune running through your head (which can be maddening enough). It is hearing music seemingly coming from outside. I remember one person who suffered with this affliction was a professional musician who had to learn to perform pieces of music while he was “hearing” conflicting music that did not abate even when he was performing.
Thanks. Please forgive the negativity, but I felt uneasy about the video project. The therapy’s fine – that’s not the problem. But I wouldn’t want to have one of my parents or friends used in this way to entertain people for five minutes. I suppose it’s educational, inspirational, all that – but it’s also intrusive. It steals his dignity to edify a crowd.
The video of Henry has gone viral, according to NPR, which did a piece yesterday about the transformative effect music can sometimes have on dementia patients. Here’s the NPR link, which I checked out after my drive home from work:
http://www.npr.org/2012/04/18/150891711/for-elders-with-dementia-music-sparks-great-awakenings
Be sure to watch the video of “Joe” for a feel-good experience. :)
It steals his dignity to edify a crowd.
I saw no one’s dignity being stolen or diminished in any way. And clearly at least the daughter gave permission for her father to be filmed, since she herself is in the video. He may have given permission himself, if he was capable. Oliver Sacks is one of the most humane individuals on the planet. He does not exploit patients.
David (04/20/2012 – 1:51 pm), this is not an I’m right/you’re wrong thing. It’s simply a matter of viewpoint. You have yours and others – I’m sure I’m not alone in this – have theirs. Aesthetics, perhaps, rather than morality. Cultural, definitely.
At any rate, I’m glad this therapy is helping people. We discard humans far too easily. This is a good reminder that for all our vaunted science and technology we understand nearly nothing about the human mind.
My 22-month old also loves Cab Calloway (Betty Boop cartoons, doncha know). Sunrise, sunset.
Fr. Imbelli, thanks for this. A lovely way to end the workweek.
There’s a young man (20s) in our parish who’s moderately-to-severely autistic who comes to Mass with his parents. Watching his physical response to, say, the meditation song after Communion, is a source of prayer and mediation on many Sundays. His reaction to the music often expresses the power of the music as (or more!) powerfully than dancers.
We need more stories and conversations like this. Charity covers a multitude of sins.
Although he says he’s an atheist, I think Oliver Sacks is doing holy work. (Interesting Christianity Today interview with him about religion: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/juneweb-only/6-24-21.0.html)
The times I saw my kid most joyful and engaged with religion was when he went to church with Raber’s father, who had become a Wesleyan after he left the Amish. The Wesleyans sing their heads off, make a lot of eye contact with each other, hug, and generally have a great time.
Catholics in the local parish are rarely sing, look straight ahead, make the barest of contacts during the Peace, threaten their kids in strangled whispers to shut up and be still, and usually head for the parking lot as soon as they’ve received.
I tend to be snooty about low-church Protestantism and evangelicals, but maybe the happy-clappies have tapped into some aspect of the Spirit we spikey Christians overlook.
Catholics in the local parish [...] threaten their kids in strangled whispers to shut up and be still
Once I went to Mass with a distant relative. In that parish kids sat in the front pews, away from their families but we could see them ahead of us. Although I didn’t notice anything, his son, who was about 8 years old, must have acted up. Right after Mass the father walked up to his son quickly, and as soon as we were out of the church, slapped him hard five or six times across the face, yelling at him to behave during Mass. (I was shocked but, to my regret, didn’t do or say anything.) Uninspiring though your parish is, it could be worse!
Claire, if a parish is singing more, the distraction of young children lessens–and perhaps engages them more, was my only point.
I also hear many elderly parishioners fondly recall hymns they sang as children, none of which seem to be used today, which is sad. I think of Henry’s daughter in the video to which Fr. Imbelli links recalling memories about her father engaging his children with singing and dancing. It seems to me that music ought to be something that brings people together in Church. But like so much else in Catholicism (or maybe this is just my jaded view of the Church as a lapsed Catholic), music divides the Body of Christ as much as teachings about contraception, divorce, and liturgical language.
The elderly people I talk to recall largely the same music with fondness: the Salve Regina, Regina Caeli, Tantum ergo, Credos for music in Latin, and a couple of 19th century triumphal hymns for music in French. There is little diversity.
The lyrics of the 19th century hymns would not, I think, be acceptable for today’s sensitivity, but I agree that it is sad that the Latin big hits of yesteryear have almost disappeared. (The Salve Regina is my own personal favorite, because on the day of my mother’s death I sang it to her, and her last signs of consciousness were her lips moving under the oxygen mask as she tried to sing along together with us. Now it is forever associated to that moment, joy in the midst of sadness.)
I am not sure why people are so reluctant to sing in Latin. The Trads have given it a bad rap, of course, but there is more to that reluctance than just a reaction against the fringe conservatives. The people at my parish, other than some of the elderly, seem to truly have no appreciation for it.
Claire –
Three Irish priests have an international smash hit record of Latin hymns (“The Priests”). They’re starting their first US tour here in N. O. shortly. The record was the fastest selling new classical record ever, and it has sold over 3 million copies.
http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2012/04/loyola_rings_in_centennial_by.html
Ann: I just listened to samples of a few songs. Very nice – thank you. (I prefer “Amazing grace” when it has a bit of a swing, though.) Unbelievable that one can sell a recording of three priests singing “Our Father”!