Happy Tears
Everybody knows tears.
We all cry sometimes – from sorrow, sadness, joy, tension or even from relief. Sometimes we cry from the inside, sometimes we sob or sometimes we shed tears. I discovered early in my life that music can lead to tears – or it can have a comforting effect that makes your tears disappear. As a young girl, whenever I was angry or sad, I ran to the piano crying and after a couple minutes of playing the piano, the tears were drying up.
In a later stage of my life, when I became a mother, I often sang or played the piano to put the children to sleep whenever they were crying or still wide awake.
Lately – maybe it comes with age, haha… – I notice the power of music very clearly. Somewhere in the middle of the Covid lockdowns, we went to the rare Field Lab Experience Events – with two covid tests, serious questionnaires and all the necessary measures. But oh were we happy to finally listen to live music after spending months locked up at home, And there were five hundred people present! After the first couple of bars you could see many of us looking for our handkerchiefs… To experience this unity and to enjoy music together brought many of us to tears.
It would happen at home sometimes. Feelings of tension and sadness, after a couple of notes on the piano the tears would start to flow. Tears of consolation and relief – a beautiful way to relax.
Or such as the first time to the Concertgebouw after the summer holiday: we enjoyed a wonderful performance of the famous violin concerto of Dvorák, played by Augustin Hadelich, a famous Italian – German master violist. He played an encore after the official program – soft and melodious on his gorgeous Guarneri del Gesu violin. We listened breathlessly with two thousand fellow music lovers and I felt warm tears on my cheeks. It’s something unexplainable – as if your soul gets touched. The tears accompany a grand feeling inside – happy tears.
The last time was a week ago – We went to Rome for a couple of days. A long awaited dream of mine had come true I have traveled a whole lot in my life, I was able to visit far, exotic lands – but I have never been in this beautiful, ancient city. We were lucky: despite the bad weather forecasts we were able to admire the two thousand year old architecture, art and history – in the warm autumn sun. We went on hour-long walks in picturesque streets to the Colosseum, the Trevi fountain and naturally we spent a whole afternoon in the Vatican. The finest Egyptian treasures, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, there are so many beauties in one place that it almost stuns you.
Our afternoon ended with a visit to the Saint Pieters basilica I have always read so much about it, learned about it at school and heard amazing stories. In the end I stood there in the presence of hundreds of visitors from all around the world. And then all of a sudden, music arose… The organ of the basilica, simplistically, guiding a church service. It felt as if my soul was touched again. The place, the atmosphere, all the beautiful things that happened in a day like this were unified in the sounds of the organ music. I felt miniscule in this grand, fabulous building and I let the warm tears run free.
Happy tears – all by the power of music.
