why do you make, perform, and listen to music?


I was just asked to answer the following question for a Philosophy of music course.  Thought I'd share my answer here as well.

why do you make and perform music?

The beautiful and very interesting thing about music is that the answer to this question is never, ever the same.  The answer I give tonight would be different than a week ago, a year ago, a decade ago, and finally two decades ago when I first started playing music.  20 years ago I played music because someone handed me a bass at school.  I didn't choose it.  A month after that I chose to play music in an orchestra festival and was bitten with the performing/musician bug.  In these days I played music in and out of school for love - for the great feeling of doing something creative and collaborative.   When I studied music at University I played music because I had to succeed.  The focus was different. Scholastic.  There was still love but there was dissection of "why" and "how" - draw back the curtain - reveal the mystery - at the same time increase the love of the art while diminish the spontaneous "fun" - for now. Then came playing music for work ...  survival - remuneration  - loans - mortgages - IT jobs.  Music became a hobby.  Secondary.  Lost.  Almost dead for too many years.  But ... then reborn.  This past less than 365 days has been a reprise of the love of every note.  The love of every opportunity to play - to create - to support - to improve and enhance - to conquer - to remember that above all it's always part of me. 

Why do you listen to music?  The answer to this almost never changes.  It's to escape. 

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