Borne Away on a String

I have fallen in love with cello music.

I have always loved the sounds of the stringed instruments. I played the viola at one point. OK. My parents rented a viola from the school, I took free lessons once a week, I never practiced, and therefore I was never any good. But I've always loved the music.

When I was 16, I traveled to Europe with the Girl Scouts. It was a whirlwind trip of 7 countries in 22 days. As a teenager, I didn't get as much out of it that I wish, in retrospect, I had, but I recall the night in Salzburg, Austria, that we attended a string quartet concert in a round tower of Fortress Hohensalzburg. The music echoing off the stone reverberated in my soul, and that music has been my favorite ever since.

Keep your saxophones and pianos and guitars. I'll take the strings.

I love the violin because they can play just about anything, a classically trained chef working in a diner. The upbeat rhythms of Celtic music. The down-home excitement of Country music. Russian music, opera, Classical, Baroque.

The cello, though, is a deeper tone like a wind taking a hot air balloon up and away. Often when I listen to music of any kind, a picture, a movie will play in my mind. I could have created Fantasia, except that I can't draw.

But cello music transports me away from all of those stories and I just am. I breathe in and out. The oxygen swims on the notes and travels to my core. I float on an ocean of sound, at once warmed by the sun and cooled by the water. There are no people, no demands, and no worries.

The cello is a gift from God.