Karl Paulnack, a pianist and director of music division at Boston Conservatory makes a welcome address to freshman parents at Boston Conservatory. The purpose of this speech is to help parents understand the importance of music and why music matters. Most people understand music as a hobby, they see music as a past time that is a “filler” of som sorts. A large majority of parents don’t really understand why their children spend their time and money in a musical department. The truth is that many of these children see music as a necessity of daily life. The impact that you can have on people while making music is an indescribable feeling. Parents don’t feel that passion that their children have when they are performing a piece that makes their …show more content…
Olivier Messianen was placed in a concentration camp during WWII. I have always had strong feeling towards the holocaust. The injustice that the Jewish people and countless others had to endure breaks my heart. I listened to Quartet for the End of Time and I mourned for the pain that the Jewish, the Polish, the Gypsies, the homosexuals, the disabled and many others endured. Paulnack comes up with the conclusion that “art is part of survival; art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are.” I agree 100% with this statement. The people in these camps found console in music, art and in literature as well. I find that I also look to music my darkest moments as well as my happiest moments. Music helps people find a purpose in their life, it gives them initiative to continue. Listening to a certain song or piece can bring back a flood of memories, good and bad. One song can make your remember that summer night with your friends. Another can bring back the memory of a heartbreak. I also listened to Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. I watched the movie a long time ago and I vaguely remember the scene in which this piece was performed. However, the emotions that it gave me where very much the same. Maybe I am simply an emotionally weak person, or maybe I understand what the composer was trying to present here, but the Greeks were right. Music does find the pieces inside of our heats and souls and positions them just right in order for us to