When He Last Heard Music
Monday afternoon and evening were intense. After playing a brief recording session for Keyshia Cole’s next album – which was not particularly intense – I drove east a couple of hours to spend time with an ailing friend.
Gerald Anderson, and his wife Linda, were very instrumental in my musical development. He ran the orchestral program at Santa Monica High School. His wife, Linda, led the choral program at the Junior High school.
They are both extraordinary educators, and wonderful human beings.
When I arrived, Gerry looked a different person. Battling two cancers, shingles, and pneumonia, he’s been through more in the past two months than many deal with their whole lives.
But he is not down for the count.
Both cancers are treatable, and he has beaten back the pneumonia and shingles. I have every confidence he will recover and enjoy a good many years of vibrant health.
Now before my visit Linda asked me to be sure to bring my violin. And sure enough, Gerry wasn’t going to be denied.
One of his favorite pieces in the world, it turns out, is the D Minor Partita of Bach. So I began with the first movement.
Having not played it for some time, and feeling rather stiff of hand, I played with my eyes closed, intensely visualizing as I went. I knew I couldn’t fight with the stiffness, so I went with it, altering my phrasing in some surprising ways.
I let the notes come out when my hand was ready for them, and yet at the same time I stayed conscious of each beat as it passed by.
When I finished playing and opened my eyes I found both Gerry and Linda in tears. Mine flowed to join them.
Gerry then said, ‘Clayton, I can’t remember when I last heard music.’
Well, I can tell you this, hospital or no hospital he’s going to be hearing music now. Later in the evening I called my mother, who had a serious health episode herself a few years back. At the time my wife and I bought an inexpensive I-pod and loaded it up with all kinds of wonderful music and brought it to her.
Chances are, Gerry is listening to it as you read this.
You know, it amazes me that ‘houses of healing’ rarely, if ever, bring the power of music to bear on the treatment of illness.
It’s a major mistake.
All true healing begins and ends with the heart. And there isn’t a better way to appeal to the heart than through music.
All the best,
Clayton Haslop
P.S. The music of Bach and Kreisler is wonderful for lifting spirits. And I have a little course that takes you, measure by measure, through a piece by each of these masters.
