I have felt the magic ever since I attended a concert by the Philadelphia Symphony. Maestro Eugene Ormandy opened the concert with Samuel Barber’s Suite for Strings. I never knew that 100 strings could sound as one. Beethoven’s 5th Symphony was the second piece. With the down beat the corpulent lady next to me elbowed my ribs. I felt my ribs and the magic of music as the old trolley made its way back to 69th Street.
The National Symphony and massed choir from Washington D.C. majestically rendered Handel’s Messiah. At the conclusion of the Amen chorus a man leaped to his feet and shouted Bravo. The audience left their seats and repeated his praise. A thousand people felt the magic.
You’d expect perfection from the classically trained musicians. But from a 2-year-old? She stood erect, microphone in hand. Flawlessly she sang two verses of When He Cometh to Make Up His Jewels. Perfect pitch! High notes no challenge! Her mother helped her off the stage. She agreed to sing another time, but, of course, she’d have to sing a different song. She was one of God’s magic jewels.
I chuckle at adults who say they’ll sing in heaven. Not me! I’ll listen to the song the angels have been longing to sing for millennia.
I heard a tiny voice singing in a Texas grocery. I hurried from aisle to aisle. There she was seated on the floor stocking the bottom shelves. Despite the back breaking job, that late 80’s lady was singing Amazing Grace. She smiled at me and kept singing her song. Music magic can do amazing-grace things to a troubled soul.