Music, Words, and Pictures Be Free by Joel Westburg

Music, Words, and Pictures Be Free

by Joel Westburg

A picture is worth a thousand words,

Or so it has been said,

But wouldn’t they be worth much more

If they were notes instead?

Yes, I say! Let it be known!

For if I say, so it shall be,

A picture’s worth a thousand words,

And a thousand pictures, a symphony.

Let the music reign free, so say I.

Let the peals ring throughout the halls,

For all know that a single chord

Can make an empire fall.

A single beat can change a life

From saddened grey to color galore,

For a single note can take a day

To reach excitement from a bore.

From subtle delicacy to pompous grandeur,

Music flows supreme.

And all who listen know quite well

That music makes the scene.

So don’t diminish your grand crescendo,

Let your fermata hold,

For hidden in those magic marks

There’s a story to be told.

A simple tune, to grow and soar,

A story to be, a melody to live.

And that’s what makes it all important—

Those stories that music happily gives.

And may that story reach us all,

From the old to the young, you see.

For a picture’s worth a thousand words,

And a thousand pictures a symphony.