I don’t think anyone actually realizes…

Alright, so aside from the obligatory remarks like “I’m a musician and my life would be meaningless and empty without music,” do you honestly realize how big of a part music has in modern society?

Since the dawn of time…

…

Ahem. That was the lighting cue. Who’s in the control booth? Mac, is that you back there? Wake up dude, we’re trying to put on a show here. Jesus, I’m sorry folks, you know it’s really hard to get experienced help for these late…

Thanks, Mac.

Since the dawn of time, mankind has had one insatiable urge. Something almost programmed into us — beyond the need to hunt, farm, reproduce, or answer questions about our place in the universe. We’ve been driven to make music.

…to make music.

Ahem. MUSIC.

Ugh. Mac? That was the backing track cue. Look, again, I’m sorry folks. I think he fell asleep back there or something. Just try to imagine a really motivational orchestral score playing while I’m saying all of this, okay?

Music came before civilization. Some of the oldest known artifacts that attest to this are bone flutes from around 40,000 years ago. That’s prehistoric music, y’all.

Of course, we can only dream of what that might have sounded like because nobody had a recording device. Nobody had a way to notate a score either because music theory hadn’t been invented yet. Heck, we didn’t even have written language. But that didn’t matter. People had to find a way to make noise.

But it goes deeper than that. It might have even been part of survival. It’s been theorized that some of our earliest ancestors — people who still were dwelling in caves — may have used vocalizations to navigate through the dark tunnels. They could have even chosen particular chambers for special rites due to their resonance.

Can you just imagine, for a moment, ancient tribes making their way through caves by singing? I can. I imagine it a lot, actually.

And ever since then, we haven’t stopped. When we study ancient civilizations like Egypt, Greece, and Rome, it’s clear that music played a significant part in religious ceremonies, political events, and even daily life. Armies brandished battle horns to order their soldiers and priests and priestesses used instruments to help invoke deities.

We still do those types of things. Soldiers march to the beat of a drum. And what kind of church service these days doesn’t have singing of some type?

Can you imagine a sporting event without sound effects and theme songs? Have you ever seen rough cuts of a movie before it’s been scored? It just doesn’t work without music.

And we don’t work without music either. It’s in our blood. It’s in our spirituality.

So, no, I can’t imagine a life without music. Without music, we wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t have gotten as far as we have.

I’d like to thank everyone for attending tonight’s event. And as always, management insists I say this last part: there are no refunds on tickets.