IT'S MUSIC TO MY EARS

Shakespeare once stated “If music be the food of love, play on.” But our love affair with music dates far beyond the Bard. Every society, past and present, has embraced music as a cultural constant, even back to isolated tribal groups and their primitive instruments. In 2008, a five-holed bone flute was discovered in a cave in Germany thought to be 35,000 years old. Think how colorless and silent our world would be without magical musical sounds. Whether you sing along, play a musical instrument, dance to the rhythms, compose like a Gershwin or Sondheim, perform like Madonna or Mandy Patinkin or simply listen, music is a wonderful way to relax and enjoy your time. Maybe you turn on the radio in your car. Personly I can’t drive without my favorite radio station to listen to, STAR 99.9, while many tune in to Sirius radio with its 325 channels. New Haven and surrounding areas lay claim to Michael Bolton, the Five Satins and the Carpenters. Many of us can still remember American Band Stand, Elvis and the Beatles and the newest iterations like American Idol and the Masked Singer, not to mention the Grammys and American Music Awards. Many couples have a favorite song and I can remember “Always” as the tune that was played at our wedding. A good friend, Fran Apfel, sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” when my mom died at 93 as we use music to mark the most significant memories of our lives. While decades ago we listened to and danced to groups like the Platters, the Drifters and the Temptations, today we are almost afraid to hear the newest headliners: Smashing Pumpkins, Puddle of Mudd, The Just Plain Ridiculous, Limp Bizkit, Def Leppard, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Enuff Z’nuff, the Goo Goo Dolls, Porno for Pyros and Thirty Odd Foot of Grunts, I kid you not. Imagine a world without “Les Miz,” “Annie,” “The Sound of Music,” “Gypsy," “Into the Woods,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Hello, Dolly!” Unimaginable! Soon we will gather at the gazebo for outdoor concerts and cheer on Fourth of July parades. I solemnly promise not to take up the accordion again. I abandoned that part of my life in sixth grade. I will, however, despite the wishes of my children, promise to sing along, loudly and proudly, to our National Anthem when ball games are on and appreciate how fortunate we are that music never went away (even when Buddy Holly died), doesn’t require a mask and six feet of social distancing is no problem at all. Music, you are truly and forever the food of love. Play on!