![\"On_The_Move\"](\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/On_The_Move.jpg\")
<\/h3>\n<\/h3>\nAt the recently concluded XVth International Tchaikovsky Competition, the candidates were each asked which guests they would like to invite to their dream dinner party. Most of the answers to a question I find particularly pleasant to contemplate were unimaginative and mundane, though the Second Prize winner and U.S. candidate, George Li, nominated all the world leaders \u201cto at least have a moment of peace throughout the world\u201d which showed some vision. One person who I\u2019m sure these world-class pianists would be enriched by entertaining is Oliver Sacks, one of the leading intellectuals of our day, whose body of neurological writings often touches on music and whose recently released memoir, On the Move<\/a>, <\/em> reveals a personal love of music.<\/p>\n Music has a forceful presence in Sack\u2019s life, in good times and bad. After delivering the manuscript of his first book, Migraine<\/em>, to Faber and Faber, he was so elated that he \u201cwanted to shout, \u201cHallelujah!\u201d but I was too shy. Instead, I went to concerts every night \u2014 Mozart operas and Fisher-Dieskau singing Schubert \u2014feeling exuberant and alive.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s a surprising Mozart\/Ontario connection that will please Lake Huron enthusiasts. While working on the book that was eventually published as A Leg to Stand On<\/em>, Sacks retreated to Manitoulin Island, with two pieces of music \u2014 the Mozart Mass in C Minor and the Requiem. Not only did he listen to these pieces while writing the book, they were central to the subject of his book, which was the near fatal accident he suffered when he broke his leg while hiking alone on a mountain in Norway. For eight hours, as he dragged himself down the mountain using his arms, these two pieces of music played in his head. Later, when it was time for him to try to walk again, he found that \u201cmoving the leg felt like manipulating a robot limb\u2026nothing like normal, fluent walking. \u2026suddenly, I \u201cheard,\u201d with hallucinatory force, a gorgeous, rhythmic passage from Mendelssohn\u2019s Violin Concerto. ,..I found myself suddenly able to walk, to regain…the \u201ckinetic melody\u201d of walking. When the inner music stopped after a few seconds, I stopped too; I needed the Mendelssohn to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n Surely this is one of the most powerful proofs that music is much more than a profound enrichment of life, but an essential tool for survival. The physiological and emotional resilience Sacks had to muster was available to him because he had already listened to the great classical masterpieces countless times, and installed them in his internal reserve of resources. Even in today\u2019s world, with the endless availability and infinite inventory of music available to us in cyberspace, we still need to devote the time and concentration to actually listen <\/em> to music in such a way that it becomes part of us. Ear buds and iPods and Wi-Fi aren\u2019t always there for us in a crisis but our internalized melodies can be.<\/p>\n Music alone would not have gotten Sacks through his wildly risky and self-destructive young adulthood and early middle age, which he frankly describes. Accident-filled motorcycle rides, amphetamine abuse, lifting extreme weights (up to 1000 pounds) without anyone to spot him, and risky sexual practices were a regular part of the life of the man who eventually stabilized enough to become an effective clinician and hyper-prolific writer. It is a surprise to learn of Sack\u2019s dissolute beginnings given his dignified and accomplished public persona, as well as encouraging to see how he was able to change the course of his life with determined interventions. Sacks identifies five factors that enabled him to survive to a ripe age: psychoanalysis (for 49 years, even longer than Woody Allan), clinical work, writing, good friends and \u201cabove all luck\u201d. How refreshing and candid that he doesn\u2019t default to the standard shibboleths, family or love.<\/p>\n![\"lat_sacks042615a_15072807_8col\"](\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/07\/lat_sacks042615a_15072807_8col.jpg\")
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