Connecting Through the Universal Language of Music
Sunday morning dancing on the rue Mouffetard in Paris
© Meredith Mullins
I want to make people cry, even when they don’t understand my words. —Edith Piaf
It’s Sunday morning in the Square St Médard in Paris. I am singing in the warm sun . . . belting out the words “Tant que l’amour inondera mes matins” from Edith Piaf’s “L’Hymne à l’Amour” (The Hymn to Love).
With my limited French, I don’t quite understand what the words mean; but the song swells up inside and puts a little lump of emotion in my throat. I feel an unexplainable nostalgia.
There are people all around me singing the same words, with the same nostalgia. There are dancers swirling to the accordion accompaniment. Everyone is involved in the song. We are connected by a powerful...
