Do you listen to opera?  Not everybody does, and not everyone enjoys it.  Some operas, however, are worth listening to.  I say this because yesterday marked the birthday of Gioachini Rossini, the famous Italian composer of the Enlightenment and Romantic Era. You may have heard of some of Rossini's most famous works, such as the Barber of Seville (a delightful comedy) and William Tell (a dramatic presentation of the life of William Tell, one of the people who, legend has it, helped birth modern Switzerland).
     Interestingly, Rossini's break with musical tradition, particularly in opera, represented yet another, though, in its own way, uniquely singular, picture of the way that his predecessors, including Mozart and Handel, had already broke open musical possibility. Steeped in the Romantic tradition, Rossini was able to infuse his music with emotions the West had not yet seen.


     As I ponder this and listen to a few of Rossini's most famous overtures (like the one from William Tell), I often return to contemplating the remarkable way in which humanity has become itself.  Creativity bequeaths creativity, newness births more newness, and what has been, as Ecclesiastes observes, is always becoming what is.  Like Arthur Lovejoy's Great Chain of Being, life opening more and more in history and time, music opens too, ever speaking to us of future and possibility, steadfastly reminding us of the near inexhaustible character of humanity and the cosmos.
     Music makes us see that reason alone will not give us meaning.  We need the emotion, the emotional moral force of music in our lives to tell us that life has hope and that life is more than mind.  For reason alone, as philosopher (and atheist) Kai Neilsen points out, will not lead us to what is moral.  We need the transcendent, a realm to which Rossini's soaring arias point us, to know what is most valuable and true.