Hummingbird Music Camp Message

Remarks of John Donald Robb to the students of the Hummingbird Music Camp and their parents and teachers, circa 1965.

Boys and Girls, Parents and Guests:

The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. Psalm 19.

Life is full of wonder. The wonder of life and nature comes to us through our five senses.

Touch – through the skin
Taste – through the tongue
Smell – through the nose
Sight – through the eyes
Sound – through the ears

With these we discover all that we know about the world.

Anyone who is born without the sixth sense, the sense of wonder, is unfortunate. Anyone born with it possesses riches which nothing can take away.

Can you see seas and islands floating in the sunset sky?
Can you see statues and profiles in the rocky cliffs?
If you can, you have this sense of wonder: don’t ever lose it!
The wonders which we see through the eyes have been greatly increased by two eye aids: 
The telescope which brings things closer.
The microscope which shows us things too tiny for our own eyes.
Wonder is the beginning of learning.  But learning is not enough.  You must:
Acquire learning. 
Use it.

The boy or girl who is awake to these wonders, learns to understand them (at least in part), and then uses his learning for his own happiness and that of others – is like the man of the Bible says : he

“shall be like a tree planted by the river of waters, that bringeth forth fruit in its season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

I think God manifests himself not only in Love and Wonder, but also in Beauty.  He is all three of these. If we seek Beauty we are seeking God.  If we are creating we are discovering God.

There is beauty – 

        In the sights that we see
        In the sounds that we hear

In the love that we feel and show for other living beings, animal or human.

There is even beauty in touch, taste and smell.
There is also ugliness if that is what we are looking for.
There is beauty in the touch of a hand – but ugliness is in the touch of a hot stove.
There is beauty in the taste of apple pie – but ugliness in the taste of castor oil.
There is beauty in the perfume of a rose – but ugliness in the smell of a paper mill.

If you seek beauty, you will find happiness. If you seek ugliness, you will become ugly yourself, inside and probably outside.

But I want to talk about the fifth sense that I have mentioned – the sense of hearing – for while we have the other senses, we are all a special, lucky class of people.  We are all musicians.

When I retired in 1957, I took a year off and journeyed to about 20 countries, circling the whole world.

Everywhere I went, I found I had the finest passport because I was a musician, and everywhere I went, I sought out and met musicians.

I learned many lessons.  Let me tell you about some of them.

In India I met a Professor of Music in Madras at the University. He was glad to talk to me about music and the music of India in particular. I was so impressed with him that I went out and bought his book on India’s music. I learned that India’s music is basically religious. The usual concert piece starts with an invocation to God.

But in Sama Murti’s book I ran across this remarkable sentence:

“There are many pathways to God but the pathway of music is the most pleasant.”

Also in India, in Lucknow, I met a musician of the All India Radio. His name was Gora Sen. When I met hm he did not say “How do you do? I am glad to meet you”. He said, “I greet you in the name of Almighty God”. He was a flute player.

In the days when India was a colony of England, he used to be afraid of the fierce English Goras, as he called them, in the province of Bihar. Gora means fierce, but he said “I am Kala which means gentle”.

Then one day he listened outside the church where the English were having a church service, and he heard them singing “celestial” music as he called it. “What are they singing?” “Hymns,” he was told.  “What is a hymn?” “A prayer to God.” They answered. He was never afraid of them after that.

He told me how, in his youth, he used to hear the Banseri tribesmen playing beautiful music on the flute. Ban means forest and seri means beauty, so Banseri means ‘beauty of the forest’.

I have learned a good many languages.

I learned Latin and German in school.

I learned Chinese during a year (34 years ago), that I spent in China 

I learned French during a year (1947-48), that I spent in Paris.

I learned a little Italian and a little Russian.

I am now learning a new language call FORTRAN.

All these are languages to talk to human beings except FORTRAN. FORTRAN is a language which you can talk, (or at least write to computers) to a machine.  

Someday we will invent a language by which we can talk to birds and animals.

Meanwhile there is a language which is universal – the language of music.

It is your privilege here to learn this language.  The nice thing about it is that is not all hard work.  Especially when you play music with others.

So I will close by asking God to bless you in your studies here in your lovely music camp.