Music is Life, Estas Tonne, Paganini bails out Berlioz and The Getaway

I am starting out of order. The above video from YouTube is from a guitarist named Estas Tonne. I discovered his music in 2016, by chance...it popped up on my suggestion list on YouTube. It has a transcendental quality to it. At the time, I was going through some physical challenges with my back that made my other passion, running, very difficult. This music became part of my therapy...everyday I would listen to it while I did my physical therapy. It was holistic.
I don't know where I would be...what I would do...who I would be...if I didn't have music in my life. I feel it, use it, breathe it. There is music for every occasion. It comes from everywhere.
I may take it to extremes. But one person who knows how I feel is the great Yo-Yo Ma. My friend Webb Chiles, the greatest sailor on the planet, shared this article with me...I thank him. Webb knows what I mean about music...it means as much to him too. For Ma, when asked "What is music for" he has the perfect answer; "It is to help me through life." Ditto.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/12/17/yo-yo-mas-days-of-action


I was reading some letters by Hector Berlioz. He was good friends with the great violinist-guitarist Nicolo Paganini. Turns out that Paganini loaned Berlioz a lot of money in 1838.

December 18, 1838

"My dear friend, Beethoven dead, none but Berlioz could restore him to life; and I, who have tasted your divine compositions, worthy of a genius such as yours, consider it my duty to beg you to accept, in token of my homage, 20,000 francs which will be paid to you by Baron de Rothschild on presentation of the enclosed. Believe me always, your affectionate Nicolo Paganini."

Berlioz wrote back: "Noble and great artist. How can I express my gratitude to you? I am not rich, but, believe me, the good opinion of a man of genius, such as you are, touches me a thousand times more nearly than the regal generosity of your gift. Words fail me, but I shall hasten to embrace you as soon as I can leave my bed, to which I am still confined." -H. Berlioz.

I will share another piece of music that is deeply ingrained in me....this is from the 1972 film The Getaway with Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw. Quincy Jones wrote the score for the film. This tune is called Free. The great Toots Thielemans plays the harmonica. I lived in Austin, TX when this film was released. This scene was filmed on the San Marcos river not far from Austin, and I spent some fun times there floating on tubes in the hot Texas sun. This music, for reasons I can't explain, means a lot to me. I come back to it often.