Finding a Voice

Last night we watched the newest version of Beowolf (with Angelina Jolie). Not sure I would highly recommend, but one scene got me thinking: the queen sings with her harp in the mead hall full of people, with only a handful actually listening to her. I commented, "The original coffee shop." The musician sings, it's mainly background music, setting the atmosphere, but a few people attend to your sound--your instrument, your voice, your words, your emotion.

So I did some internet surfing and found this lovely description of a minstrel:

Initially, minstrels were simply servants at Court (the name means literally "little servant"), and entertained the lord and courtiers with chansons de geste or their local equivalent. The term minstrel derives from Old French ménestrel, menesterel, menestral, French, which is similar to ménestral, Italian ministrello, menestrello, from Middle Latin ministralis, ministrel, "retainer," Latin minister, "attendant," "retainer," "minister," from minor, "less." (from Wikipedia)

This is my purpose -- to minister to the people listening and to minister to the people I sing about and work for.

Labels: music, vocation