Ann McKay, Bangor

I play the flute, and the summer after my sophomore year in high school, I went to New England Music Camp for the month of July.  My flute teacher, a professor at a midwestern university during the school year, suggested that I prepare to do a flute solo for one of the student recitals.  I practiced (and practiced and practiced) von Gluck’s Dance of the Blessed Spirits for weeks that summer and successfully performed the piece when the time came.  Later that year I had some tests for abnormal peripheral vision and had to have exploratory neurosurgery at Boston Children’s Hospital in November.  They had classical music piped into the recovery room, and my mother, who was sitting by my bedside, reported that after several hours of sleep following the surgery, I sat bolt upright in bed, turned to her, and reported “They’re playing my solo!”  I then lay back down and slept for several more hours.  I had correctly identified my recital piece, and I think that experience proves that music affects our subconscious as well as our conscious mind.  I have often heard Dance of the Blessed Spirits played at various venues since, and I always pause to savor its slow and melodic beauty.