Passion of Music
 

“Society is a wave. The wave moves onward, but the water of which it is composed does not…. Its unity is only phenomenal. The persons who make up a nation to-day, next year die, and their experience with them ”
-Emerson, “Self-Reliance”

For some people, music is intertwined in the very proteins that make them up. It’s in their DNA. It’s who they are. It’s who Tim Matthews is. He is the man born on August 27, 1952, and to him, those notes from the bands or orchestras, which in some incomprehensible and mystical way can conjure such powerful and deep emotions in people, are his passion. He has a particular affinity towards the music he heard growing up: big band and swing music like Mitch Miller or Frank Sinatra. He loves these old tunes enough that he even volunteered at a radio station that played old American classics. He would talk about the big bands or groups, give some history on them, but  mostly just play the music. As a child, Tim had gone to as many concerts and shows as he could. They excited him, they made him feel alive. He had even made an album of his own that was fairly successful. It gave him a chance to express what he loved in a different way. But as time went on, that genre of music he held so dear began to fade. Soon, it was hard to find on the radio. And then, as it seemed to him, it was gone.

He felt as though he was one of the only people who did still cherish these older songs. He  saw this new generation listening to their pop music and he just didn’t hear what he heard in his songs. These new hits that were becoming pop just lacked something that older songs had. Half of them were made with a computer. No heart. No soul. The world was changing around him, leaving him behind as wind does, picking him up and carrying him a ways before dropping him back off to stay as time blows on. He enjoyed volunteering at his radio station, sharing the classics he enjoyed so much as a child, and still enjoyed today, but the notion that no one was listening hung over that enjoyment. It nagged at him, but what was there to do? He just hoped that the people who did listen were able to enjoy hearing those songs as much as he did.

Today, Tim Matthews went to speak at a local high school’s History of Music class. He was excited, but also wasn’t sure what to expect. He thought that the students wouldn’t show any interest in what he wanted to talk about. As he entered the class, he heard one of his old songs, from his very own album, playing on the gramophone. The kids in this class seemed to enjoy this music as much as him! They gladly listened as he ranted about songs and bands, and he played a few songs for them to hear. The students informed him that, although not too many, some students at the school played his radio station as much as they could. They appreciated that music, saw in it what he had seen as a kid, and enjoyed it  just as he always had.

As he left that school, to gladly go play some great music for the radio station, he was different, happy that his music was still perfectly existent in this newer world. And as he drove, he flipped onto the radio station. “In the Mood” by Glenn Miller was playing, one of his favorites. And he knew that there were others listening too. And so he drove, smile on his face, to share more music with the world.