2.
The Neglected Sense
The ear remembers, the ear recollects, and that shows you one of the most
important elements of expression in music, one of repetition and accumulation.
And this goes into many many areas, and composers have achieved great mastery of
all the repeating, sometimes short parts of a theme, or of a motif, and creating
different kind of accumulation. In any case, the ear has this incredible memory.
But the ear, let us not forget, starts operating on the forty-fifth day of the
pregnancy of a woman. That means the foetus that is in the womb of a pregnant
lady begins to use his ear on the forty-fifth day of the pregnancy, which means
it has seven and a half months advance over the eye.
(LAUGHTER)
And therefore the question is, what do we in our society, in our civilisation,
do to continue this process and this wonderful fact that we have seven and a
half months' advance. ...
But there are some things about the ear which we know, which may be not be out
of place to remind ourselves here. One is that it depicts physical vibrations
and converts them into signals which become sound sensations, or auditory images
in the brain, and that the space occupied by the auditory system in the brain is
smaller than the space occupied by the visual system, and that the eye detects
patterns of light and converts them into signals which become visual images in
the brain. All this is common knowledge. But the well known neuro-biologist and
neuro-scientist who is sitting right here, Antonio De Marcio, has taught us many
things about human emotion, about the human brain, and also about the human ear,
and he says that the auditory system is physically much closer inside the brain
to the parts of the brain which regulate life, which means that they are the
basis for the sense of pain, pleasure, motivation - in other words basic
emotions. And he also says that the physical vibrations which result in sound
sensations are a variation on touching, they change our own bodies directly and
deeply, more so than the patterns of light that lead to vision, because the
patterns of light that lead to vision allow us to see objects sometimes very far
away provided there is light. But the sound penetrates our body. There is no
penetration, if you want, physical penetration, with the eye, but there is with
the ear.
Now, when the baby is born, in many cases - in fact in most cases - the ear is
totally neglected. Everything is centred on the eye. The fact that we live in a
primarily visual society comes much later. Already in infancy the child is more
often than not made more and more aware of what he sees and not about what he
hears. And it is also, let's face it, a means of survival. When you take a small
child to teach him how to cross the street, what do you say? Look to the right,
look to the left, see that no cars are coming otherwise you will be run over.
Therefore you depend on your eyes for survival.
And the ear is very often neglected, and I find much that is to my ears
insensitive or disturbing goes totally unnoticed by society, starting with the
coughing in the concert - as my friend and colleague Alfred Brendel has often
remarked in great detail - to many many other noises to which we are totally
insensitive. The equivalent of that to the eye would be enough reason I think to
find it so offensive that people could even be accused of disturbing society.
Just think of the most despicable aspect of pornography and how offensive that
is. They are many things which are just as disturbing for the ear which are not
really taken into consideration. And not only we neglect the ear but we often
repress it, and we find more and more in our society, not only in the United
States, although the United States I think was very active in starting this
process, of creating opportunities to hear music without listening to it - what
is commonly known as muzak. I have spent many very happy years here, but I have
suffered tremendously. In the hotel where I stay they think that it is very
culturally minded to play classical music in the elevator, or in the foyers of
concert halls before the concert.
(LAUGHTER)
And I have been on more than one occasion subject to having to hear, because I
cannot shut my ears, the Brahms violin concerto in the lift, having to conduct
it in the evening.
(LAUGHTER)
And I ask myself, why? This is not going to bring one more person into the
concert hall, and it is not only counter-productive but I think if we are
allowed an old term to speak of musical ethics, it is absolutely offensive. And
the most extraordinary example of offensive usage of music, because it
underlines some kind of association which I fail to recognise, was shown to me
one day when watching the television in Chicago and seeing a commercial of a
company called American Standard. And it showed a plumber running very very fast
in great agitation, opening the door to a toilet and showing why this company
actually cleans the toilet better than other companies. And you know what music
was played to that?
(FEW BARS OF A RECORDING PLAYED)
The Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem. Now ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry, I'm
probably immodest enough to think I have a sense of humour but I can't laugh at
this. And I laugh even less when I read some, a document which I've brought here
to read to you in its entirety. It was published, I'm afraid I don't know in
what newspaper, but it is the Editor's note. The following is a letter sent in
by Christine Statmuller of Basking Ridge, it is in reference to her previous
letter which ran in the April issue of The Catholic Spirit. 'Thanks for printing
my letter in which I objected to the use of music from Mozart's Requiem by
American Standard to advertise their new champion toilet. As you can see from
the enclosed letter below, it achieved results, thanks to the letters from other
incensed readers.' And the letter is as follows:- 'Thank you for contacting
American Standard with your concerns about the background music in the current
television commercial for our champion toilet. We appreciate that you have taken
the time to communicate with us, and share your feelings on a matter that
clearly is very important to you.'
(LAUGHTER)
'When we first selected Mozart's Requiem, we didn't know of its religious
significance.'
(LAUGHTER)
'We actually learned about it from a small number of customers like you, who
also contacted us. Although there is ample precedent for commercial use of
spiritually theme music, we have decided to change to a passage from Wagner's
Tannhauser Overture,'
(LAUGHTER)
'which music experts have assured us does not have religious importance.'
(LAUGHTER)
'The new music will begin airing in June.'
(LAUGHTER)
I think that says it all!
(LAUGHTER & APPLAUSE)
Now I really… I don't know whether you believe me or not but it doesn't matter,
I didn't read it to get a laugh, I find it absolutely abominable.
And now we have the whole association for descriptive marketing in the United
States, which is how use descriptive marketing, how to use music as description
and how to market it that way - in other words what they are saying to the
public is you don't have to concentrate, you don't have to listen, you don't
have to know anything about it, just come and you will find some association,
and we will show you so many things that have nothing to do with the music and
this way you will go into the music. And I ask you, ladies and gentlemen, is
that the answer to the so-called crisis in classical music? Accessibility does
not come through populism, accessibility comes through more interest and more
knowledge, and not telling people don't worry you'll be all right, just sit
there, buy your ticket, sit there, shut your ears, and you will think of
something. That is in fact what we are telling them. And this is criminal. And
this is something which has bothered me more and more and more over the years.
Music in itself has nothing to do with a society that in a way rejects what I
would call publicly accepted standards of life, and of intelligence, and of
human existence, and takes the easy way out with a kind of political correctness
which does only a few things, all of them in my view negative.
First of all it shows you how to hide your real feelings, it shows you how to
cope with the fact that you are not allowed to show dislike of anything, and I
wonder how long it takes before the not showing of dislike also goes on to the
showing of like. And that the society that has accepted so many rules, so many
regulations, and so many procedures, which have the great advantage of avoiding
situations of conflict. And this of course very positive, very useful, and very
necessary; however when taken beyond the human level it brings us to the point
where there is of course no more conflict, but there is also no more contact.
And this is in a way what I wanted to share with you today, that music teaches
us exactly this. Conflict, difference of opinion, is the very essence of music,
in the balance, in the dynamic, in the way that the music is written. You see
that in a Bach fugue, you see that in Mozart concertos and operas, the
subversiveness sometimes of the accompaniment. Music teaches us that it is
precisely our capacity to bring all the different elements together in a sense
of proportion so that they lead to a sense of a whole, and this is what I feel
in my own subjective way one of the main lessons that I have learned from music
for life, because having started very young I was put in contact very early on
with the question, how does a child of twelve or fourteen without life
experience, how can he express the mature thoughts of a Beethoven. And of course
he can't. And there's a lot of things that I have learned from my experiences in
life since then that I feel I try every day to put into the music, but there is
a lot more. A lot more that I have learned from observing music, not as a
specialised phenomenon of sound, not only as a specialisation or profession but
as something which can teach us many things about ourselves and about life.
Thank you very much.
From discussions with the audience
I think art, whether it is a visual art or the music, art only has sense for me
if it really penetrates your innermost being as a human being, not when it is
just an object to either hear or look at without it having any effect on you. So
you tell people you don't have to think, you just think of something else and
then you will be okay. On the contrary, you have to, er you will get more out of
the music if you are able to really actively listen, to actively put in there,
even if it is completely different for me or anybody else. If I think a piece of
music has in that particular place an incredible mathematical construction, and
you are totally oblivious to it, it's no problem at all so long as you have
something instead of that. If you just listen to it mechanically and don't let
it touch you, then I have a problem with you. And the political correctness
allows us not to have a point of view. ...
It is our duty as educators to teach children that there is not contradiction
between love and discipline. If we don't do that we will get nowhere. ...
I don't believe that true intelligence should be divorced from true emotion, and
true emotion should be not be divorced from true intelligence. This is why music
in a way seems that way - and this is what brings us back to the children - that
music is not a profession, it has to be a way of life so that it is no
difference between what you think and feel in music and what you do in other
ways. ...
Music has to use professionalism in the sense of the discipline that is
required. Orchestras all over the world, not only in the United States, all over
the world, spend the maximum number of minutes in every hour, the maximum number
of hours in every day and the maximum numbers of day in every week etc. etc.
etc. discussing everything that has to do with the professionalism aspect of
music, and not about the music in itself, because the arch enemy of music is
routine, is not lack of professionalism. Lack of professionalism is very bad,
but routine is the arch enemy. ...
On the Nature and Power of
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