Hello, Bloggers.
I’ve been listening to the soundtrack of Braveheart recently and thinking about the drums, which figure prominently in the score, which was composed by James Horner.
To me, the drums are the essence of emotion. I take great pride in the drums of the Revolutionary War, the drums of the ancient cultures of Africa, and the great drums of the Far East. All send great messages to my soul.
The drum, in its simplicity, makes all things common: how we perceive the beat, the intensity, the way that the living soul of the drum almost matches the beat of our heart, the pumping of our lungs, the very essence of who we are.
In many cases, I can feel the drums actually in my stomach, and they can make me cry with their primeval rhythms.
I’m sure that the first person who understood they were a person, the Adam or Eve of our history, were the first drummers.
Here’s a link to the Braveheart soundtrack on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Braveheart-Original-Motion-Picture-Soundtrack/dp/B000004286/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1243712440&sr=8-3
It’s a powerful tool for meditation. I believe the music from Braveheart comes from the other dimension. It has all of the human emotions, contradictions, everything it is to be human, all encapsulated in that hour- or hour-and-a-half-long presentation: the spiritual, the material, the possible, the impossible, how we can be the best and the worst of people, how everything is so transparent and hidden.
It punches you in the stomach and soothes your troubled soul all at the same time. To me, it’s the voices and the spirits from the other side, talking, singing, whispering, shouting, guiding, leaning toward some answer.
Matt