When You Write, Get Close to the Soul

“Art is when you hear a knocking from your soul—and you answer.”—Terri Guillemats

There’s a story about an enterprising French manufacturer, who after World War II, collected the brass from shell casings fired by German artillery to reuse in making musical instruments. The story goes that when melted down and recast, they made saxophones of world class quality. In fact, some of the best saxophones ever made. Astoundingly superior to what had been produced before. And when the supply of German shell casings ran out and the manufacturer went back to pre-war materials, the resultant instruments were somehow lacking. Unable to produce musical tones with the same resonance as before, the same richness.