The Power Of Song

By Akela Talamasca on May 13th, 2009

svcc-dnr Children shouldn’t have to grieve. They are the best, truest reminders that there is light in the world, something that we as adults sometimes forget when thinking about the state of our affairs. So when a Charlestown, Boston eighth grader named Soheil Turner was shot and killed by an unknown assailant, his fellow students at Warren-Prescott School were forced to confront the darkness of illogic that makes up part of our daily lives.

The next day was the occasion of a statewide singing contest, in which Warren-Prescott students were to participate, singing their rendition “What A Wonderful World“, a sadly ironic choice. And though they were devastated by the loss of their schoolmate, they rallied and won, triumphing over older, more established contestants, and reducing the audience to tears.

Their music teacher said it best, telling them “It’s OK to be sad, but it’s also OK to have fun.” When we lose someone important to us, we decide how best to honor that person’s memory. It may seem to us to be disrespectful of the departed to go on with our lives, as though that were something shameful. But our lives do still go on, and living doesn’t mean forgetting. We cannot bring back those who have died, so a better use for our energy would be to make something of our own lives as a tribute to what might have been, had the victim survived.

As a vehicle for emotion, there is little to compare with the power of song. Music can unite us all, allowing the audience to share with the singers what they’re feeling. In this case, it’s clear that the strength and the purity of the choir’s emotions are what carried them to victory. In this way, the children gave respect to their schoolmate the best way they knew how. And with the choice of song, they enumerated all things that remained — skies of blue, clouds of white, the bright, blessed day, the dark, sacred night — these things that we frequently take for granted, but have not lost their power for all of that.

The world is a poorer place for the loss of one of its children, and what he might have given to it in time, but for the students in the choir, it is no less a wonderful one. Let’s remember this ourselves, and pass this lesson on to our own children.