By DONALD DeMARCO
As the coronavirus plague wears on, people continue to look for hope. Over the entrance to the Inferno, Dante placed the words, “All hope abandon, ye who enter here.” If Hell is a place without hope, then living without hope is the equivalent of already being in Hell. Hope, therefore, becomes imperative. We cannot endure a life without hope.
We look to God for hope, which is one of the three supernatural virtues. The ultimate hope is to be with God and with friends in Heaven. Shortly before he was executed in 1535, St. Thomas More wrote to his family, particularly his wife, Alice, and his daughter, Meg, expressing to them his fondest hope: “May we one day meet merrily in Heaven.”
We are earthly creatures and the hardships that assail our physical life cry out for some remedy. But, we are also spiritual beings who can lose sight of our higher nature and lose confidence that such a remedy is even possible.
Music can bring us hope, for, as Beethoven has reminded us, it is “the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” It is, as the great composer adds, “a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.”
It has been well established through scientific research that good music can boost the immune system. Beyond science, however, we know that music can serve as a conduit for bringing about hope, encouragement, and unity. During the Second World War, when all concert halls were blacked out to avoid being targeted by German bombers, pianist Myra Hess performed lunchtime concerts during The Blitz, spanning a period of six and a half years without fail. Brits found hope, encouragement, and unity while listening to her performances of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and Schumann — oftentimes in the confines of a bomb shelter.
The music of Chopin, especially his “Heroic” Polonaise, invigorated the hope of Poles when their country was under attack. We also note how important the music of Jean Sibelius was, especially his Finlandia, for his countrymen, what Bedrich Smetana’s My Country was for his fellow Czechs, and what Edvard Grieg’s lyrical music was for his native Norway. Nor can we ignore the patriotic spirit that Kate Smith injected into her audiences with her incomparable rendition of God Bless America.
“I should be sorry,” wrote George Frideric Handel, “if I only entertained them. I wish to make them better.” Music has a loftier goal than merely to please. It seemingly conveys a message from Heaven. The composer of Messiah hoped that his Oratorio would effect a spiritual transformation. How well suited is music to accompany the Mass! In this context we think of the works of Schubert, Bach, Mozart, Francke, Palestrina, Verdi, and Brahms.
Queen Elizabeth II delivered a message to the world in response to the corona pandemic on April 5, 2020. She concluded her presentation with the words, “We will meet again.” An estimated 24 million tele-viewers were her witnesses. These four words, charged with emotional significance during World War II, had brought about an overwhelming spirit of unity to everyone in the British Isles. And no one had delivered these words with more power and conviction than Dame Vera Lynn.
At this writing, Dame Vera Lynn is 103 years young and has traded singing for painting (her elder brother, Roger, passed away one day short of 103). Her life, serves, indeed, as an emblem of hope. She was born Vera Margaret Welch on March 20, 1917. She adopted her maternal grandmother’s maiden name, Lynn. When she was two years of age, Vera fell ill with diphtheritic croup and nearly died as a result. She was sent to an isolation unit and spent three months there. Because she spent Christmas in a hospital, her mother arranged for a special Birthday/Christmas holiday for her in March.
Being very protective of her daughter, she did not allow her to play in the streets or visit friends for a long time. This period of isolation prefigured a similar period of isolation that she and millions of others are currently experiencing.
Blessed with an extraordinary voice, she began singing publicly at age seven. She is best known for her 1939 recording of We’ll Meet Again which was immensely popular during the war. The emotionally stirring, perhaps heartbreaking words, evoked a strong sense of unity and hope: “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when, but I know we’ll meet again some sunny day.”
Her inimitable rendition continues to inspire people who are searching for hope, encouragement, and unity.
Closely linked with We’ll Meet Again is another inspirational wartime song made popular by Dame Lynn — The White Cliffs of Dover: “There’ll be bluebirds over, the White Cliffs of Dover, tomorrow, just you wait and see.” Dame Vera Lynn lived through World Wars I and II and is now enduring the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet her message of hope endures and is a source of inspiration to innumerable others.
Dame Vera Lynn was much more than a singer (and composer). She devoted a great deal of her time to various charity projects, with special concerns for ex-servicemen, disabled children, and women afflicted with breast cancer. In 2000 she was named the Briton who best exemplified the spirit of the twentieth century.
Music can be great food for the human spirit. It awakens us to the fact that we are spiritual beings and that our lives have meaning and that the human spirit is unconquerable. Music is not mere entertainment; it is edification. Dame Vera Lynn’s life is a testimony to this truth. As an emblem of hope, she is a spiritual companion to all of us who are searching for hope in a time of great difficulty.
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(Dr. Donald DeMarco is a professor emeritus at St. Jerome’s University, and an adjunct professor at Holy Apostles College & Seminary. He is a regular columnist for the St. Austin Review. His latest three books are How to Navigate Through Life and Apostles of the Culture of Life [posted on amazon.com], and the soon to be published, A Moral Compass for a World in Confusion.)
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