Jeunes filles au piano (Girls at the Piano). Pierre-Auguste Renoir. c. 1892. Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

I hope you’re enjoying the gift of music in your home. It sets the whole mood of Christmas preparations, doesn’t it? We’ve been hearing a lot of “Jin…gle…Bells” being played very sl…oooo…wly on our piano — by small hands making music for the first time.

I’m hoping 2006 will be the year we start our children in piano lessons. I would love to hear back from some of you parents who have ideas and advice about motivating children to practice. Once we begin, it’s a commitment I want to keep. The piano teacher we know is very much into memorization and training for “the guild,” (so I hear) — though I’m not quite sure what “the guild” is at this point.

I do know that God created us all with a yearning for music — it’s an act of praise to lift our voices and instruments in song. Here are a few inspiring quotes about music:

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” — Plato

“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosphy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.” — Ludwig van Beethoven

“Bach gave us God’s Word. Mozart gave us God’s laughter. Beethoven gave us God’s fire. God gave us Music that we might pray without words.” — quote from outside an old opera house

“Use the talents you possess, for the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except the best.” — Henry Van Dyke

“The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.” — Johannes Sebastian Bach