We Are Music. John Sharpley. World Scientific Publishing, Singapore (published in the U.S.), 2024, 411 pages.
BOOK REVIEW — What is music? A tiny question with a huge answer. Author John Sharpley grapples with the question and finds answers, which turn out in summary to form the title of his book. We Are Music is essentially an invitation to explore who we are through the medium of music.
Music is an innate part of every human being, Sharpley maintains. In experiencing music, we discover ourselves. It is highly significant that anthropologists have yet to come across a society or civilization that lacks music as part of its cultural environment. “Certainly on mundane levels, music is pleasing, relaxing, confirming, encouraging, unifying, and so on,” writes Sharpley, but “Music is [also] a portal to self-realization, higher consciousness, ‘prophecy,’ and beyond.”
The first eight chapters (roughly half the book) are devoted to extensive discussions of eight fields of perception: (1) listening; (2) time and rhythm; (3) sound, pitch, timbre, and emotions; (4) melody, line, and structure; (5) harmony; (6) counterpoint; (7) texture; and (8) form. Having thoroughly absorbed all Sharply has to tell us about these (and “us” includes professional musicians who could use a refresher course in the qualities and dynamics of each), the reader is now ready to delve into the heart of the matter.
“Music is not something outside of ourselves,” writes Sharpley, “it is literally manufactured and ‘heard’ as sound in and by our brains.” Unfortunately, in modern society, particularly in the developed countries, it has largely been turned into a commodity, a product to be packaged, marketed, and sold — factory-made entertainment promoted by celebrities.
Anyone who has listened alone, in a darkened room, with no interruptions or distractions, to a Bruckner Adagio or a late Beethoven quartet or the St. Matthew Passion will understand Sharpley’s thesis about how music is at the very heart of our spiritual being.
American-born Sharpley first visited Singapore in 1985, fell in love with the country, and has lived there ever since. His musical education includes bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Houston, a doctorate from Boston University, and diplomas in piano, violin, and composition from the National Conservatory of Music in Strasbourg, France. His composition teachers included Michael Horvit, David Del Tredici, John Harbison, Betsy Jolas, and Leonard Bernstein. An encyclopedic knowledge of most Asian musical cultures (he owns more than 200 instruments, mostly percussion) has enabled Sharpley to perceive music in a vastly wider framework than what most Western ears and minds normally regard as “music.”
Deeper reflection and understanding of the relation of music to the cosmos and higher consciousness has existed, Sharpley reminds us, since time immemorial. Lao Tzu, Confucius, Pythagoras, Plato, and Boethius are, to name only a few, ancient sages who spoke of music’s power in relation to the cosmos. Sharpley represents a rare case of a true Renaissance man with his knowledge not only of music (Western, Eastern, ancient, modern, and everything else) but also linguistics, Eastern cultures, religion, physics, math, neuroscience, astrophysics, history, archeology, philosophy, and psychology, all of which he wears lightly. He has the gift for explaining profound thoughts with a deft touch in terms almost any intelligent reader can understand whether he or she has a musical background or not.
Each chapter comes with its own bibliography divided into print media, web sites, and YouTube sites. Further, each chapter concludes with multifarious suggested activities the reader can explore as extensions of the material just absorbed. These include a suggested listening list and QR codes for audio-visual experiences to support the numerous examples in music notation. High-quality color photos (the chocolate cake looks good enough to eat!) contribute to the appeal of this absorbing contribution to the literature that probes the elusive meaning of music.
In his closing chapter, Sharpley leaves us with this glowing image as we look into the future: “It is indeed amazing and empowering that an individual can be transformed toward a higher state of consciousness and spirituality thru music. Just imagine if this deep love and experience of music were to keep expanding toward infinity, reaching multiple communities and ultimately, all of humanity? From human history and current events, this would seem to be overly and hopelessly idealistic. Nonetheless, I believe that this is a potential.”
Perhaps Handel caught the essence of Sharpley’s thesis in these famous words, spoken to the Earl of Kinnoull upon his complimenting the composer after hearing Messiah: “I should be sorry if I only entertained them. I wish to make them better.”
