Balcony musicians inspire the world

Music, said Saint Thomas Aquinas, can be defined as “the exaltation of the mind derived from things eternal bursting forth in sound”. Faced with the stresses and difficulties of the coronavirus outbreak, it should come as no surprise that so many people have found a response to the pandemic in music.

Our bodies may be doing the right and responsible thing by remaining at home, but our minds are not so easily locked down. Things eternal still need to burst forth somehow, and in the face of Covid-19 music has become one of humankind’s most defiant public assertions that life must continue in harmony.

Nowhere has this musical expression of the will to survive been more inspiring than in Italy.

A week ago a few Italians began to open their windows in the evening and venture out on their balconies to sing. Neighbours opened their shutters and joined in. The music went viral and caught on. They sang Italy’s national anthem, local folk songs and popular melodies. Musicians joined in with their instruments. The non-musical banged pans. In towns lucky enough to be home to an opera singer, live renderings of Verdi and Puccini arias have echoed through the empty streets.

Not every country in Europe is as musical as Italy. Not every country has narrow streets lined by houses with balconies either.

But Italy is not alone in turning to music in its time of trouble.

Singing and live music has been reported across Europe from Spain to Sweden. In Ireland, Bono responded on social media with his first new song since 2017. With concerts mostly abandoned everywhere, livestreaming of all forms of music has snowballed.

It is almost as though music has suddenly become the expression of the way we wish the world was.