The Beautiful Mystery
I’ve been doing quite a bit of pondering regarding my own relationship with music, and specifically my singing. It’s come about through my reading of The Beautiful Mystery by the celebrated Canadian author Louise Penny. It seems as if I have come to some kind of crossroad and I am glad that Penny’s book helped me to give a bit more clarity to something in which I need to investigate deeper.
The story is about a monastery in the Canadian wilderness in Northern Quebec. The monks who inhabit it are of an order called Gilbertines and their particular specialty is singing, specifically Gregorian Chant. Of course, a murder takes place and Chief Inspector Gamache and his second-in-command, Inspector Beauvoir are called to investigate. The officers discover that there is an underlying conflict that has divided the monks and they suspect this has lead to the murder; the murdered monk being the Prior and choirmaster of the monastery.
For me, Penny accurately captured the whole “why” we as musicians devote our lives to music. It’s a very deep spiritual endeavour and sometimes I feel that I am not as deeply committed to it as her Gilbertine monks. I am still trying to come to the point where Louise Penny’s monks have come: the very act of singing becomes a spiritual act and the conflict is defines as to whether the monks love God more than the music or vice-versa. I approach that ethereal feeling quite often in live performance, but not when I am playing or singing for myself. Seems to me that I have a lot of work to do.
Once I made the decision to become a full-time musician 20 years ago, I threw myself into the day-to-day work of trying to become that working musician. In concentrating on the business side, I seemed to have left the music behind and I am finding as I get older, it’s becoming clear that I must re-focus.
So thank you Louise Penny for the kick in the behind and for helping me clarify my purpose. If you like crime-fiction, her Armand Gamache series should not be overlooked.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite chant groups, Anonymous 4 singing “Alleluia – Alme Iam Ad Gaudia”
