Music and Rites

Why is that we sing a song to a person on his/her birthday? For some reason, our culture associates big events with music. Maybe it has something to do with the the many kings of England who preferred to march into the room accompained by the regal sounding melodies of trumpets. The music signifies how important that day is, or at least should be because sometimes we simply sing the Happy Birthday song because it's what we've always done.

For most "once in a lifetime" occasions, the music usually emphasizes what is being celebrated, remembered, mourned, and so on. My choir in high school sang every year at graduation. We sang songs like Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" along with the song "For Good" from the musical Wicked. In one way or another, these songs fit the theme of growing up and thanking those that helped you along the way.

My sister's best friend had asked me to sing for her wedding a while back (but I couldn't because it ended up being the same weekend as my senior prom..) Anyway, she had asked if I would sing Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This." That's just another example of how unique events in our lives are ususally paired with certain types of music.

There are other things that occur in our lives that are not so unique, like a birthday or Christmas. That's not to say that these things are not special, they just happen every year. The music we perform at these types of rites are the same every time. As Americans, we like to sing the Star Spangled Banner at almost every event. There's nothing wrong with showing national pride, but it begins to lose its meaning when it is sung so often.

It's difficult to choose music for a rite that will reflect the individuals involved, but at the same time there is that pressure from the person organizing the music to choose music that will represent the people as a whole without his own personal preferences imposing.

Another funny observation about our culture is that we hardly ever have impromptu musical performances. We may in the comfort of our own homes or at a karoke bar on our birthdays, but to experience first-hand something like a mother's lament, as tragic as it is, we might never encounter. Most music that we perform in public is well-prepared.

On a lighter note, perhaps we all need to burst into song a little bit more. All life really is is an unstaged musical anyway.