the food of love
‘If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.’
With these words, Count Orsino opens Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Can love perish without music to sustain it? As a musician it is not hard to buy into that idea. When I am playing music I am at peace with the world. When I stop, as the hours go by, I become increasingly restless. After years of this happening I still forget that often the most effective remedy for my discomfort is to begin playing music again.
‘I’ve got a big 6 string, I carry it around, I strum and I sing, stamp my feet on the ground. I sing from the heart, I hope you like the sound, I sing with joy about the love that I’ve found.’
Of course there are times when silence is best. Life would be bleak, though, without music.
