A Pause Between Movements
After fifteen years of attending the annual winter and spring band concerts of my four children, I am a veteran concert attender. I have heard some incredible musical pieces, but I have also heard Hot Cross Buns played very badly, but enthusiastically, on every possible instrument, including the recorder, which my son could play proudly using his mouth or his nose. (I'm sorry for the mental image this produces.)
At these concerts, the band director usually gives a speech on proper concert etiquette to the band novices in the crowd. He reminds the audience to turn off their cell phones, to not leave in the middle of a song and to please keep young children quiet. The director also likes to remind the audience to please not clap until a musical piece is over. This last request on the manner's list seems obvious to the most casual observer, but the end of a musical piece is not always when the audience thinks it is.
Lengthy musical compositions are often broken up into several self-contained sections or movements. The individual movements are separated by a brief pause. As long as the director has his baton raised, the piece is not over. Since movements differ in tempo, volume and even style, the pause allows time for the audience to anticipate the change.
A recent Stanford study found that "different individuals listen to a piece of music with wandering attention, but at the transition point between movements, their attention is arrested." *
My attention was arrested when I was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. At the time, I was also in the process of stepping out of a position I had held for 16 years. Now that I have finished my cancer treatments, I find myself in a pause between movements. I am evaluating the style, tempo and even volume of my life's movement.
In the past, I would have said that I was not the best at waiting, at pausing. I am very goal-orientated and like to accomplish as much as possible. It is a different sort of place to realize I don't know exactly where I am heading, and to be OK with that.
Psalm 27:14 says, "Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord." I think that is pretty good advice. For now I wait, eyes on the director, in the pause between movements.
* http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20070801005093/en