A Message For Mary In The Music Of Tom

The Age

Saturday July 12, 2003

CHRIS MIDDENDORP

From the sonorous magnificence of Mozart's Great Mass in C minor to the uplifting harmonies of a Lennon-McCartney pop song, music has been used to express our yearnings for most of human history. Indian mystic Sri Chinmoy writes that music in its purest sense is religion, and there is no question that music has been used to celebrate and augment many a religious rite, from Pharaonic ancient Egypt to the Southern Baptists of the Mississippi.

But is there more to it? Is music merely mood or ritual, or is music the language of the soul? I once saw a small miracle take place that involved the songs of Tom Waits. Mary, a homeless Aboriginal woman I was assisting in my job as a outreach worker, was desperate and suicidal. She had been assaulted and robbed, her welfare payments cut off. She had been sleeping in a park and her boyfriend had just been sent to prison. ``I've got no reason to go on," she said.

But, soon after, Mary underwent a transformation. It happened as we drove to my office. My Tom Waits compilation was playing on the car stereo and Mary had never heard anything like it. ``This is grouse," she said as she turned up the volume. The preposterous primal growl of Waits's voice as he sang Walking Spanish filled the car: ``Even Jesus wanted a little more time, when he was walking Spanish down the hall."

After a while, Mary started smiling. She began to radiate goodwill and strength. I guess a higher power in the music awakened something higher in Mary - because she decided, there and then, to make a new start. She asked me to drop her at Spencer Street Station. She would catch the train to Castlemaine. ``I've got family up there," she explained. Then Mary left town with my Tom Waits tape in her pocket.

It is curious how good music can connect us to something profound; how it can stir the soul or offer an eloquent promise that there is a significance to our lives above and beyond the everyday. Beethoven put it this way: ``Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." His Ninth Symphony is a case in point. In my life, many a sadness or travail has been healed by his Ode to Joy. Beethoven's music has an intangible capacity to elevate the listener to another realm. What gives music this authority? Perhaps it is a bridge between the material and spiritual. Music's power is, of course, ineffable.

``Music gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and everything," wrote Plato. Mary would probably agree. She rang me a fortnight later to let me know things were working out. She thanked me for the tape. ``It's a lifesaver . . . I'm in heaven when I listen to it."

Chris Middendorp works for Hanover Welfare Services and is a Melbourne writer. email: cmiddendorp@hanover.org.au