We have never needed more urgently the emotional space that music — and classical music in particular — can provide

It is an impulse that is still fundamental to who we are. Yet our own modern lives are frazzled and fragmented to an unprecedented degree. Who has the luxury of making time each day to actively listen to a particular piece of music? Perhaps we have never needed more urgently the emotional space that classical music can provide. Scientific research is increasingly proving that regular acts of so-called ‘self-care’ can have untold benefits on our mental health and well-being. Personally I’ve never been able to get the hang of regular meditation or yoga. I go to the gym listening to music.

No  matter how I feel music keeps me moving. I never wait to file my tax return because something always comes up. I think “why wai?” This time of New Year’s resolution-making and gaining is liable to make me feel pretty motivated. Each year, I set annual expectations that I meet and maintaining to stick to. I become increasingly inspired as a result. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. (I hope I’m not alone.)

The month of January is the perfect time to dive in to a new sonic soundscape

Yet it turns out that even I have the self-discipline to eke out a few minutes each day to stick on my headphones. I can listen to a single piece of music and be transformed. Although I have never played the violin, I only fully grasped the miraculous effect of a daily engagement with this music. Personal grief of juggling the irreconcilable demands of a relentless freelance career  a messy divorce, with an energetic life style has given me inspriation to re-define who I am.  I am not feeling permanently on the edge of burnout whilst the outside world sees me as ‘everything just can’t be fine!’  I am in a very healthy place and yet many of the potential solutions I tried have taken affect.

Music has been a go-to.

There’s a reason everyone from film to mass musical directors invariably relies on classical music when they want to ramp up the feels

I began to feel empowered almost immediately when I converted my listening habits into a conscious daily ritual. I curated myself monthly classical playlists with a specific piece for each day. Getting on my Ipod and pressing play, instead of automatically being sucked into a social media scroll hole, seemed to be spiritually stabilizing. I began to look forward to it. And it occurred to me that, if I could benefit in such a meaningful way from this small but powerful act of soul maintenance, so might others.

What if I could build on my lifetime’s love of classical music? What if I could open up this vast treasury of musical riches by demystifying both the music and humanizing those who created it by giving each piece some context, telling some stories, and reminding readers/listeners that this music was created by a real person, probably someone who shared many of the same concerns as them, who in many ways might be just like them.

Where to start?

Classical music is an art form that, for myriad complex reasons, is often perceived to be the preserve of a narrow elite; an exclusive party to which few are invited. This is painfully ironic, because the work itself is among the most emotionally direct that we have. There’s a reason everyone from film to sunday mass organs to funeral directors invariably relies on classical music when they want to ramp up the feels. And I was losing track of the number of friends, family and even strangers who were asking, often sheepishly, if I might be able to make them a classical playlist.

Scientific research is proving that regular acts of so-called ‘self-care’ can have untold benefits on our mental health and well-being. I nightly even played classical Bach. Mozart. Beethoven  Wolfgang Amadeus. Chopin, Luszt for first 7 years of their lives so they fell asleep with dreams, visions  and aspirations. It has been quite a joy sharing this  “brain power” with my childten.

Sometimes it was a precise request: music to study or work to; music to soothe their newborn babies or fall asleep to or to impress their new partner’s parents with; music to exercise to; to unwind to; to garden, commute or throw a dinner party to. The guy who runs my local coffee shop asked me to curate him a classical soundtrack for the late-afternoon/early-evening shift. My teenage niece was after something to help her through her exam revision. And so on. Most often, what I heard from these playlist-hunters was something along the lines of: “I heard a piece of what I think might be classical music on a TV show/film/video/advert, and I loved it. I don’t know anything about classical music, but I’d like to hear some more and I have no idea where to start…”

Getting on public transport and pressing play, instead of automatically being sucked into social media, is spiritually stabilising.

That question of “where to start” is critical. As with practically every other industry, technology has disrupted the music industry in both positive and negative ways. It’s true that the decimation of traditional financial models is generally leaving artists and labels less well off than they were previously. But the emergence of legal streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music has blown open the door to that party in a thrilling, democratising way. What many of us now have access to at our digital fingertips would have been unimaginable even 10 years ago. Now anyone with a half-decent internet connection can explore a musical universe that was previously closed to all except those who already knew what they were looking for and had the resources to pay for it.

Everyone has the self-discipline to eke out a few minutes each day to stick on some headphones and listen to a single piece of music.

And yet: the sheer volume of what is now available for free at the click of a button can be daunting, if not paralyzing. So I decided to write a sort of field guide, not so much a history of classical music as a hand-curated treasury of music that I dearly love. It includes plenty of women – who for centuries have been written out of the canon — composers of colour; gay and transgender composers; differently-abled composers (Beethoven, after all, wrote some of his most magnificent works while fully deaf); composers who battled — or are battling — mental health issues, addiction, low self-esteem; composers who had to make ends meet by doing all manner of unlikely day jobs (taxi drivers, plumbers, chemists, orange pickers, postal workers) but who kept at it, despite the odds, and created these glorious pieces for our listening pleasure. And maybe for our salvation.

I believe the greatest works of music are engines of empathy: they allow us to travel without moving into other lives, ages, souls. They are also robust: they can handle you multitasking all around them, fitting them into your real life. So don’t give another thought to whether you have the right ‘credentials’ to become a classical aficionado or whether you’re listening ‘right’: trust me, the only entry criterion is to have ears.

“The greatest works of music are engines of empathy: they allow us to travel without moving into other lives, ages, souls,” says Clemency.

You can listen on your commute; take them with you on a walk; stick them on in the background while you hustle your kids’ breakfast or do the school run; make them your soundtrack to fixing dinner, pouring a drink, putting your feet up, or doing the washing, ironing, catching up with emails, whatever it is you need to do at the moment where you get to finally press play. I believe there is very little in life that this music can’t beautifully complement. This is music to live to — to live your best life to.

At Christmas time, I enjoy listening to Handel’s Messiah. I rejoice with Handel’s glorious setting of the greatest story ever told, one of the most inspiring – and inspired – of all musical achievements. Filled with mighty choral forces and irresistible exuberance in the “rousing” Hallelujiah chorus. It’s my quintessential yuletide tradition that my mom and dad passed on to me. Thank you!

#classicalmusic #music #violin #piano #musician #orchestra #cello #viola #opera #classical #guitar #concert #cellist #pianist #violinist #oboe #singer #art #flute #composer #instagood #symphony  https://youtu.be/JH3T6YwwU9s

Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day is out now.

Do you have a music passion?  When and how did music affect your life?  you would like to comment on this story  please share your thoughts in the comment area below. I encourage you to listen to Clemency. It will change your life’s day-to-day for your kids and you.