Author: admin

I write in many formats, but my first experience with crafting my own passage of words was
when I was seven or eight, bashing out a score of deranged orchestration on my
grandmother’s Yamaha. Growing up in a music-blooded family certainly gave me a push in
the right direction, as it wasn’t often when I was not surrounded by melodies and lines of
lilting notation. At thirteen, I had written my first album of songs. It was during the lockdown
period, and I found myself enjoying the time I spent poured over the black and white keys for
endless weeks, thankful for something to occupy my mind that wasn’t staring at a computer.
As time went on, I began to cling to my unhinged musical composition as if it was my
lifeline. It was the thing that stayed with me – when I moved schools because of a deep level
of harassment from peers, and getting through the weeks away from home because of
boarding in this new environment. After school days, I would lock myself in a forgotten room
full of windows because of the tired piano at the wall, layered with dust and old memories. I
would be lost for hours in the magical vibrations, any worry or pain kindly melting at the
pedals beneath my feet. I am now sixteen, and musical composition is just one of many ways
I poetically experiment with words. I do not spend as much time sleeping with my forehead
on the ivories as I once did, but I will forever remember the importance of music in one of
the hardest times in my life. My world would be immensely different without the intervention
of conscientiously structured sound, and I am forever grateful it has found its way to me.

Madeleine Walker
Diocesan School for Girls

From the author:
I have entered a personal prose on my experience with musical composition growing up. I explore the impact music has had on me in the past, and how it has helped me grow into a fulfilled individual with a passion for the creative world.

Soul Shine

You ask “How does music shape your world?”  Well, let’s see.

Crazy as it sounds, my Opa’s life was saved by music. My great grandfather adored the Opera, he would ride with two of his friends on their motorbikes for an hour every single weekend to see it. However, as a Jew he was seized in an attempt to flee the wa犀利士
r but by some miracle, the Nazi interrogating him was one of those two brothers, on the bikes, to the Opera in Vienna. With 24 hours and a blind eye turned, my Opa’s life was saved. Because that shared love of music and friendship was stronger than the politics of war. I wouldn’t be here without those trips.

Music holds our hand and keeps us steady when we want to crumble yet makes us feel like we’re flying when we want to touch the sky. After six years of chronic illness, now proudly 100% healthy, I can say first hand that music gave me an unjudgmental sanctuary. My playlist reflected where I was at every point on my journey and now being 100% healthy I’m making a new one that me feel like sunshine at every note.

Music moulds our world. I love to imagine my Opa sitting in that Opera House, beaming as those symphonies soared. To watch my Pa, his son, dance around the living room with my grandma his wife of 53 years, shining. Opera house or living room it all glimmers the same. Souls of the pieces and people whispering; thank you, thank you, thank you, to those we can see and those we can only sense.

So, if you want to ask me “How does music shape your world?”
I say it doesn’t. It creates it.

Emma Grazier
St Cuthbert’s College

From the author:
How music moulds the world, and my world. Music has a soul that connects us all and is strong enough to hold us up through the hardest parts of life such as wars and illness and there to celebrate in your happiest moment.