On the NYTimes Measure for Measure blog, Suzanne Vega explains What’s a Melody For? I won’t say she buried the lede, but the post ends with Tom Chapin singing his testimony in Albany to protest cuts in state funding for the arts:
Vega concludes:
The right combination of words and, yes, melody at the right moment can have a powerful effect. The latest news is that $50 million has been allocated to the N.E.A. as part of the recovery package, in part because of the organized lobbying efforts of arts advocates across the country.
Just think of a world without art, without song — how would we celebrate? What would we dream of? What would set our imaginations free? How could we express our emotions for our husbands and wives and children? Celebrate a birthday? A melody is for expressing emotions: delight, passion, sadness. It reminds us of what we have felt and experienced before, in our own personal code of emotion and history. Priceless!
