This afternoon I put on the songs by the great American composer, Cole Porter. Cole Porter…you don’t get more American than that. Each song takes me away to another time and place. My heart throbs with love and a little nostalgia as each singer from Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Fred Astaire, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and others sing each tune with such elegance and heart. I get lost listening. Where are those songs today? Where are those composers and singers? Where is the heart in a song?
Cole Porter, and other composers of his time, knew how to take you away from the troubles of the day. Yet, you are connected to a time of the Great Depression and WWII where people loved generously and had the incredible iron will to keep going. Life was simple. Oh…how nice that sounds. The songs of that era remind me of my grandparents and my father, and my mother (though she was only a little girl during this time). This is the magic of music. It can connect the past to the present. It is just like an art piece that tells the story of the day. Music stirs emotion like noting else.
It is hard to turn the music off and get back to the present day. My world. Thank goodness we have ways to listen to this wonderful music in our times. I feel the presence of family and people of that generation around me, and they are listening with me-smiling and glad they are not forgotten. Until then, I’ll be seeing you.
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