The Universal Language

I have often wondered what it would be like to live in a time before the Tower of Babel. How neat would it have been to have a common language from country to country, continent to continent. It sure would have made my foreign language classes so much easier! I often think about the most pressing issues of the day, and a lot of them have been caused by some kind of miscommunication, or poor communication outright. I find it amazing how the typical boyfriend/girlfriend relationship generally results in the same way for the same reason, and the reason is poor communication skills. I have attempted several times to look for some sort of universal language through all of this, and, quite honestly, have failed miserably. Not all people take kindly to blunt language, and who knew that latin couldn't get you anywhere in german class. After a while I kind of just gave up, unaware that the answer was right in front of my nose. If there was ONE THING that occurs, repeats, and patterns itself in community after community, culture after culture, religion after religion, and country after country, what would it be?



pitch
melody
harmony
rhythm
tempo
meter
articulation
dynamics
timbre
texture
MUSIC


No matter what form, this universal language provides an amazing escape in the most powerful form. Creating a mix of emotion and feeling, music compels the listener to laugh with you, cry with you, hate with you, love with you, and gives you the time of day that others will not afford you. It provides a means of escape in the hardest time, and helps you celebrate when the hard times are over. I often think of the old african american spirituals sung in the cotton and tobacco fields so long ago, praying for deliverence while maybe even incorporating another meaning. Through music there is a common ground, a common interest, and though you may not be entirely interested in music, you can't tell me that you don't listen to the radio, turn on your ipod, go on the internet and look up you favorite song, or hum the tune of that song you have stuck in your head. Whether our "dialect" is country, rock, pop, indie, techno, reggae, heavy metal, classical, new age, or emo, we all speak this language, every single one of us, and that is what makes music so incredibly important.

HikerChik