Check it out at the Blount County Public Library

Have you heard that music soothes the savage beast? I used to imagine a raging, wild beast overwhelmed by his emotions. When he hears music for the first time, it speaks to his soul and he understands that there is something beautiful outside of him. Music helps him to control his passions.

When I learned that the quote is actually “Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast” from British poet William Congreve’s 1697 poem The Mourning Bride, I was disappointed. Soothing a tumultuous breast just doesn’t have the same impact as soothing a raging beast.

Whether to soothe a savage beast or breast, music has been important to humans since ancient times. Archeologists have musical notations from early Greece. Many of us know the story of David soothing Saul with his harp. Scientists have found part of a 35,000 -year-old flute in a cave in Germany, made from the bone of a large vulture.

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, our intrepid heroes must get past a three-headed violent guard dog, innocuously named Fluffy. In the book, they produce a flute, play it, and lull Fluffy to sleep, and continue their quest. Music has spoken to our souls for millennia.

Blount County Public Library (BCPL) understands the role music plays in our lives. Part of our mission is to provide opportunities to connect to our community, participate in life-long learning, and explore the world at large. Some of the ways we do that is provide concerts, with the help of the Friends of the Library. We have just wrapped up the first season of the Sounds of Spring. Our next adult concert is Grace Notes Flute Ensemble on Thursday, May 9 at 6:30p.m. Their beautiful, silvery sounds provide soothing music to both the raging beast and the tumultuous breast.

To listen to more music, you may borrow from our wide selection of music CDs or download albums from Hoopla. For more information about the history of music, read some of the journals available through BCPL’s website or on Libby. For more information, call the Reference Desk at 865-982-0981.