If music be the food of love, play on….
This was Shakespeare’s opening line in Twelfth Night where the love struck Duke Orsino states his love for Countess Olivia. Olivia is mourning for her lost brother and therefore refuses to accept Orsino’s love. Orsino, hopelessly in love, finds respite in music…he says the only thing that helps a lover is music and also the only way to cure a lover of love is music…give him so much of it that he can endure nothing more…that he gets exhausted and tired of it…and sought the cure of love through music..(If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die)
This is the power of music…it can be the medicine and the poison at the same time…However, Shakespeare limited the scope of music to just an aid to people in love…though music has many more sides and is capable of so much…
The way to reach God is music…take any religion, sect, cult…anything….the beat and rhythm may differ…but song and dance is the only way to get there…
Music has the ability to streamline our minds…connect our souls…to ourselves…to others…to get in-tune with the vibrations of the universe…it enables people to forget their sorrows and grieves, to magnify their happiness and love, to offer prayers and sought blessings… it is the et al.
It touches everyone’s soul…makes us be in the moment…brings equilibrium…adds immense meaning and feelings…conveys which the deepest and intense words seldom can…ask a sufi how to reach allah…and he just sings along…ask a mother to comfort her child and she sings a lullaby…so much so that his heart rate tames down and he hits slumber land…ask a lover to serenade his beloved and he just offers some rendition of his love…
Some of us find music for any situation, in any situation….be it pleasure or pain…some create it – whether through instruments or through nature…some of us begin new phases in life through music…Some songs bring a tear whereas some take us down the memory lane, bringing a smile to our face…whatever it is, it connects us with our innerself, with Almighty…
Personally, most of my memories have a song attached to it…whenever I hear these tracks…even in the faintest of volumes….it transports me somewhere else…takes me back into times…reminds me of the good old moments…some great times spent…some are moments of love…some of mischief…some of togetherness…some of separation…whatever be the time, there was always some song…
Music has the ability to manifest itself… It is capable of making strangers connect, lovers unite, families bond, animosities melt, make memories and time immortal…it is fluid to take shape of any medium, to appeal to any receptors thoughts…to transform everything…just like water…just like love….it is the elixir for the soul!
