FROM: Joseph, Kenya, Africa

“I think music is a universal language and the Julia’s “Alabado sea Dios” speaks to me very deeply. I don’t understand a word in Spanish, but the music is WOW! I received this CD when my country, Kenya, was undergoing a very unharmonious and unhappy time.

I believe her voice echoing over the seeming chaos has been, and continues to be a most healing effect to this city just as it has soothed and healed me. This particular CD is most profound. I would like to thank Julia again and again and again.

Thanks! Asante sana Julia!”
(signed) Joseph.

How can this be? A CD sung entirely in Spanish finds its way to Kenya, Africa and moves and inspires this gentle man, Joseph, who speaks not a word of Spanish.

What is it about music that touches the heart, fires the imagination, brings us closer to God, reconnects us with our spiritual selves?

Daniel J. Levitin, in his best selling book, This Is Your Brain On Music says, “The eardrum is simply a membrane that is stretched across tissue and bone. It is the gateway to hearing. Virtually all of your impressions of the auditory world comes from the way in which it wiggles back and forth in response to air molecules hitting it (depending on the volume or amplitude of the sound) and on how fast they’re vibrating (related to what we call pitch).

But there is nothing in the molecules that tells the eardrum where they came from, or which ones are associated with which object. Sound is transmitted through the air by molecules vibrating at certain frequencies. These molecules bombard the eardrum, causing it to wiggle in and out depending on how hard they hit it.”

He goes on to ask, “How does the brain figure out, from this disorganized mixture of molecules beating against a membrane, what is out there in the world? In particular, how does it do this with music?” He explains that music travels through the air not as “music” but as these vibrations, and as these vibrations bounce off the eardrum, our brains perceive these vibrations as music – violins, drums, trumpets. The subtle organization of these musical notes form melodies and harmonies symbolically striking emotional chords in us all and fire the imagination.

Our friend, Joseph, from Africa hears the vibrations and feels the passion of commitment in Ms. (Julia) Wade’s voice. He senses the warmth of her resolve and hears the intent of her words, even though he understands not a word of the language. It’s human being to human being with the barriers of language broken down into pure sound. It is on these sound waves that the inspiration travels and is magically supported so that through this incredible communication of music the inspiration of Ms. Wade is passed on to Joseph.

Upon reading this thankyou, I watched Ms. Wade break down and weep with joy and realized that the inspiration had come full circle – from Ms. Wade to Joseph and then back again to Ms. Wade. And so the goodness of inspiration goes on and on in its eternality of spiritual communication unlimited by the material barriers of language, distance, time and space – finding its way from receptive mind to receptive mind.

I pose these questions to our readership – listeners, musicians, performers: What is it about music that fires the mind and releases the soul? The original definition and derivation of the word “inspire” is “to breathe life into”. Why does music seem to breathe life into our lives? What really happens here in this ancient process of communication?

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For more information about Watchfire Music and their artists,
please visit us at Watchfire Music.com.
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