There are a number of ways we communicate with each other. For example, we use language of various sorts—writing, speech, and sign language. This would include the love poem and the love letter, not to mention the impassioned request on one’s knees for marriage. We use visual means of communicating, such as signs and art—the lacy valentine traditional in February. But a truly special way of communicating is through music.
The reason we have so many ways of communicating is that there are things that can only be expressed in one way. It’s hard to ask for a salami sandwich by playing a Mozart sonata, so language is good for that. But the feelings that go along with love are very difficult to put into words—and that’s why we have music.
There are many types of love music to choose from—every culture and form of music has some way to express love, which is not surprising, since both love and music are universal human experiences. Classical music, particularly in the form of opera, has wonderful love music possibilities. Opera was the soap opera of the pre-radio and television age, so love was a common theme. Sometimes it was love that was lost and then found, as in the comic operas of Mozart or Rossini, and sometimes it was love found and then lost, as in La Boheme. In any case, all these operas include great love arias (operatic for “song”).
In addition to opera, there are some pieces of music without words that we associate with weddings, such as “Here Comes the Bride,” which is actually the Bridal Chorus from Wagner’s opera Lohengrin, or Pachelbel’s canon which is often played at weddings. These pieces of music have a stately feeling to them—solemn to a certain degree, but also with incredible beauty—which expresses the feelings we often have at weddings: both happy and in awe at the power of love at the same time.
If classical music is not your favorite, you can find love in other types of music—country, rock, Cajun, old time, Celtic, jazz, and so forth. After all, not only do you want to listen to music as you might with classical, but you will also want to dance together. A slow rock song or country song (not the crying in your beer type, though) makes for great dancing possibilities. In short, music helps us to communicate to our loved ones things that words cannot say.
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