Piano Forum

Piano Street Magazine:
A Sudden Chat with Paul Lewis about Beethoven & Schubert

Substituting for the suddenly indisposed Janine Jensen, pianist Paul Lewis shares his ideas on his global Schubert project, classical repertoire focus and views on titans Beethoven vs. Schubert. Read more

Pages: [1] Go Down

Topic: music and self (Read 2687 times)

okoie

PS Silver Member
Jr. Member
Posts: 47

music and self

on: October 13, 2017, 07:48:36 AM

quote of a former pianist (aged 66) : "when all mind's activity ( memories,imagination,desires,etc) abates and stops, music is only a bearable noise without any significance whatsoever. Only the infinite intensity of void and silence remain. At the end also noise vanishes".
Leo Sailens

Logged

mjames

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 2569

Re: music and self

Reply #1 on: October 13, 2017, 10:18:56 AM

deep

Logged

okoie

PS Silver Member
Jr. Member
Posts: 47

Re: music and self

Reply #2 on: October 13, 2017, 05:01:33 PM

thanks, Myames

Logged

outin

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 8211

Re: music and self

Reply #3 on: October 14, 2017, 03:28:25 AM

I do often enjoy music that feels like noise without significance...makes me wonder about the state of my self

Logged

lostinidlewonder

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 8308

Re: music and self

Reply #4 on: October 14, 2017, 03:42:49 AM

I think that listening to music of any genre which you cannot connect to on any positive level is unbearable noise. We like music because it effects us on some emotional level, if it is devoid of all personal memory, imagination, desire what do you have but a noise which is interrupting? I like the sounds of waves crashing on the beach for instance, very bearable noise because it makes me think of the vast ocean and provides calming imagery in the mind.

Logged

"The biggest risk in life is to take no risk at all."
www.pianovision.com

ted

PS Silver Member
Sr. Member
Posts: 4030

Re: music and self

Reply #5 on: October 14, 2017, 05:46:43 AM

If he is saying that a perceiving mind is an essential component of musical experience, then I agree, but like all tautologies it tells us very little of any use. A page of elegant mathematics is just peculiar marks on paper if all internal association vanishes, the deepest literature meaningless scribble. It seems to me the assertion is obvious but trivial.

Logged

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." - James Joyce