Rhythm of the Body

I had been introduced to the compositions of Philip Glass several years earlier, and had fallen in love with the eclectic sounds and instruments he used. I made it a point to find his music whenever I could, which was usually on film scores.

At that time, I had a good friend who worked in the Public Relations department for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and once a month he'd give me a pair of tickets for "house seats" ...sometimes for the Philharmonic, sometimes the Opera, other times the Ballet. This particular month it was the Phil., and the performance was Philip Glass' Koyaanisqatsi, which was soon to be released.The second piece performed was called "Organic", and it very subtly, but very distinctly, brought itself into a rhythm so close to that of the human body at rest that the audience did, indeed, become perfectly in harmony with the beat of the music. It was unconscious, but my heartbeat, my breathing, everything was exactly in sync with the music to the point that there was no sense of time passing. When the piece came to an abrupt end I, and everyone in the theater, actually gasped. For a moment, my body didn't know what to do. The rhythm to which it had been keeping time was suddenly gone, and my internal systems had to readjust. Everyone seemed to be looking around, with the same bemused expression I'm sure I wore. Later, thinking it over, I likened it to the sound of the mother's heartbeat which the fetus listens to for 9 months...a soothing, very primal sound.

It was an amazing lesson in the power music holds over us. It also explained to me why my music preferences are so widely varied; jazz, rock, classical, opera, blues...each speaks to me with its own voice, and I respond to each with a different part of my psyche. Music is so very human.