4.
Meeting in Music
In music, different notes and voices meet, link to each other, either in joint
expression or in counterpoint, which means exactly that - counter point, or
another point. And yet the two fit together. ... In music there is a hierarchy,
a hierarchy if you want with equality. And that is what of course is much easier
than in life. How difficult it is to achieve equality and yet to find a
hierarchy. In times of totalitarian or autocratic rule, music, indeed culture in
general, is often the only avenue of independent thought. It is the only way
people can meet as equals, and exchange ideas. Culture then becomes primarily
the voice of the oppressed, and it takes over from politics as a driving force
for change. Think of how often, in societies suffering from political
oppression, or from a vacuum in leadership, culture took a dynamic lead. ...
Now, when you play music, whether you play chamber music or you play in an
orchestra, you have to do two very important things and do them simultaneously.
You have to be able to express yourself, otherwise you are not contributing to
the musical experience, but at the same time it is imperative that you listen to
the other. You have to understand what the other is doing. And the other may be
doing the same as you, if he is sitting next to you if you're a string player,
or he may play a different instrument and be in counterpoint to what you are
doing. But in all cases it is impossible to play intelligently in an orchestra
concentrating only on one of those two things. If you concentrate only on what
you do, you might play very well but might play so loud that you cover the
others, or so soft that you are not heard. And of course you cannot play only by
listening, but the art of playing music is the art of simultaneous playing and
listening. In other words, one enhances the other. ...
As I have said before in these lectures, nothing in music is independent. It
requires a perfect balance between head, heart and stomach. And I would argue
that when emotion and intellect are in tune, it is easier also for human beings
and for nations to look outward as well as inward. And therefore through music
we can see an alternative social model, a kind of practical Utopia, from which
we might learn about expressing ourselves freely and hearing one another.
This, and many other things, you can really learn from playing music, so long as
you don't view music only as a pastime, no matter how enjoyable, or as something
to forget the world, but something from which you can actually understand the
way the world can, should and sometimes does function. ...
On the Nature and Power of
Music: Next Page
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