Reflection Of Music And Music

At the beginning of the semester, we were asked to write about ourselves in a brief essay. I wrote about who I identified as, what my plans would be for the future and what role music played in my life. In my essay, I was a straight-A student, grew up in a small town, wanted to become a law student, and enjoyed singing as a tool for relaxation. Looking back on what I wrote, I am surprised at how much has changed in such a short period.

My major has changed to Sociology, and I feel no need to pursue law in the future. Once distant and foreign to me, Kenosha is quickly becoming a second home where I can build community with others. In addition, the more I studied in my respective classes, the less important grades seemed in comparison to the wealth of knowledge available. Before, I lacked confidence in my ability to act as a leader, but now I find myself happily responsible for thirty-plus kindergarteners—and

With my major being Sociology, and having been interested in human nature long before declaring, I was excited, but again unsurprised, to learn the ability of music to communicate feeling—both good and bad. Just as Aaron Copland states in his interview with psychologists Lawrence E. Abt and Stanley Rosner, “Music is a language of the emotions…either on a very plain and elementary basis, or …on a highly complex one…it generally gives off some sort of generalized emotional feeling…” This belief was mirrored by another famous composer, Leonard Bernstein in his essay This I Believe, “I believe in man’s unconscious mind, the deep spring from which comes his power to communicate and to love. For me, all art is a combination of these powers; for if love is the way we have of communicating personally in the deepest way, then what art can do is to extend this communication, magnify it, and carry it to vastly greater numbers of