Please Don't Stop the Music (or So Good It Gets Two Entries--Cather’s “A Wagner Matinee”)

Music speaks a language often heard only through our heartstrings. It stirs, connects, and encourages. As one of my students recently wrote, “Music is like a pillow comforting me.”

A recent assignment called for my students to read Willa Cather’s short story “A Wagner Matinee”. If you are unfamiliar with it, I would recommend you find it online. Not only does Cather’s story touch on the power of music, but even more so the longings of the soul.

Aunt Georgiana has given up a great many things to start a new life with her husband on the Nebraskan frontier and decades later she returns to her home in Boston. It is here where her soul is revived by the decadent music she herself once played and was forced to relinquish in moving out West.

“Her eyes were closed, but the tears were glistening on her cheeks, and I think in a moment more they were in my eyes as well. It never really dies, then, the soul? It withers to the outward eye only, like that strange moss which can lie on a dusty shelf half a century and yet, if placed in water, grows green again. My aunt wept gently throughout the development and elaboration of the melody.” --“A Wagner Matinee”

Wagner’s music unlocks her suppressed dreams and resurrects them causing them to swirl once again in front of her, only to realize that she will have to relinquish them a second time.

While I love Cather’s use of figurative language to capture to essence of Georgiana’s soul, I found myself more drawn to her acknowledgement of the power of music. Who hasn’t sought comfort from music? Who hasn’t blasted a favorite song to help pump extra adrenaline? Who hasn’t gotten goose bumps from a moving lyric or measure of notes?

Though Cather’s story was written more than 100 years ago, the universal power of music remains constant. Composers, lyricists, and musicians possess a magical touch, leading us into a room of familiar emotions connecting all of us in an unimaginable way.

In the fall, I used music to help my students understand the mechanics of poetry. I played the title song from the movie “Schindler’s List”. I provided no background information, only the instruction to listen to the instruments used and the emotions evoked within you. As we chatted about the selection, my students shared that the mournful cello caused them to feel sorrow, a longing, and an ache. We then moved on to “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2, one of my favorite bands, and discussed how the militaristic drum beat mirrors the battle ready words woven into the lyrics. Music stirs us in ways other mediums cannot.

I remember the first time I saw a stage production of The Phantom of the Opera. The final reprise of “The Music of the Night” accentuated the sorrow and pain I felt for the misunderstood Phantom. The first time I stood in an arena with U2, goosebumps sprung up on my arm as the intro to “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” coursed its way through the TransWorld Dome. When I needed help trudging through one more mile on the treadmill, Kelly Clarkson’s angst in “Since You’ve Been Gone” boosted me towards my goal.

Whatever the situation, cue up the music and crank it, if necessary. Just please DON’T stop the music.