Beautiful Chaos

I love the music building at Biola. I love the music people too. I’m sitting in a sound proof room with Kelsey right now. We were just hanging out and decided to escape the rare southern Californian cold and retreat in to the warmth of the Crowell building. The moment you walk in you hear all the different music going on. It’s like a constant sound of rehearsal. There is piano in another room, the random words sung by the vocalists, and different bands and groups coming together to practice their songs. I love it so much. It never fails to amaze me at how much music is needed in my life. I need it like a constant dose of medicine. Today I attended the music at noon (which is oddly enough actually at 12:30); my main reason to go was to watch Kelsey play because it was the symphonic winds group performing. But when the music started, it filled me with such a feeling. I don’t even know if I can explain it in words. It was kind of like when you walk outside just after it has rained and you can t help but take in a deep breath. And I did, as the music built up inside me, I breathed in and out deeply, like I was filling myself up with all the music and letting go of any anxieties or problems. Laughter may be the best medicine, but music comes in a close second. It was beautiful chaos. All the instruments were playing their own parts, but all at the same time, it seemed like the noise should be juxtaposing each there, like they clash in the oddest way, but at the same time they worked together, like they knew there was no way of escaping the fact that they were going to be played together, so they came to a compromise. Such strange emotions are created with music. And again, I can’t even name it. Something just wells up inside you, and you have to let it out by breathing, or singing, or playing along. Obviously I was at a concert so joining in was not an option at the time, but a nice deep breath was just the ticket in my case. Praise God for the treasured gift of music.

I love that artists and musicians get along so well, they are themselves, the same, just different types of each other. We have the same interests and feelings about things. Musicians are like the audible version of artists, and in turn, artists are the visual version of musicians. That my be why I love the music building so much, and all the people I meet who are music majors, or musical in any way. We share that part where we’re different from the world. We are compelled to create in some way, something that is. Maybe it creates emotion, or thought, or insight, but it is. We’re also outcasts together. We both share the “impractical” majors. The science majors scoff at us. The psych majors want to analyze everything we do, and prescribe something for whatever condition we appear to have. And the math majors….well……. we don’t talk about them much.

The musicians have such a cute tight knit group as well. The artists do too, but our buildings and classes are so far apart. Were up there, in McNally, out in the boonies of Biola, and our classes are split up in a way they we might never even see other art majors if we don’t share a class together. Now the musicians have their cozy little building, located right in the central hub of the Biolan campus. They’re all smooshed together in an outdated building, forced to see one another, because it is pretty much impossible to go from one place to another without running into half of the music major population. And the noise! It’s amazing! Such talent walks down the halls of this small structure. It’s practically bursting with it, it’s a part of life, the way everyone shares in the music in the melodies and harmonies that people have created. I’d love to be a part of that. And I hope to be. And I am already making my way in. As I said before, I’m just sitting here, in a little sound proof booth with Kelsey, as she strums her ukulele or fingers out songs on the piano. I hope that for next semester I will have to draw people as practice for my figure studies class. I’m planning on coming in here, drawing people practicing music. Wouldn’t that be amazing to do? I’d never be good enough to capture the likeness, or even the talent of these people, but I can be here, in the building and listen to the most beautiful chaos.