Without wishing in any way to be morbid, I would like to discuss the importance of the theme of death in some of the music in the upcoming concert, specifically the Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. It’s not hard to see how this piece of music might be associated with mourning, with its elegiac melodies and long, arching dynamic plateaus. The music seems to have no form or structure, just a sense of wandering and yearning in the melody. If there is any piece of music one might associate with mourning, it must be this one. Perhaps that’s why it’s been played at state funerals for people like Albert Einstein and a number of American presidents. I think one of the most poignant ways in which it’s been used is in the film Platoon, a dark film about themes of death, loss, and redemption in the Vietnam War.

But here’s my question: what is it about music that makes it so evocative when confronting death and loss? Why, for that matter, do we have music at funerals, a time when anything other than silence might seem terribly inappropriate? One could imagine that music might serve as a distraction, perhaps drawing the ear towards something pleasant and pretty as a way of avoiding overwhelming grief. Or perhaps it is the nostalgic power of music, of its ability to evoke memory in a way that is far greater than any of the other senses. I think that it has more to do with the ephemeral and intangible nature of musical sound. We are far more likely to remember specific words – perhaps from a eulogy – and sights from an event like a funeral than we are the music, especially if we aren’t musicians trained to think about music in a critical fashion. Music is beautiful during that brief time that we can hear it, but once it’s gone, it’s gone, leaving behind only the vague and amorphous memory of its existence. Music reminds us of the fragility and ephemeral nature of being human, of the reality that something so beautiful eventually slips away. Words and images imprint themselves on the mind and can be written down or recreated, but music fades. In other words, music, no matter how beautiful, ends at some point, never to return in quite the same manner. Music forces us to confront the loss, but comforts us at the same time by reminding us of the beauty and wonder that exists while it’s around.