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beethoven
August 2009 
Communicating the unknowable
Annemieke
I was very intruiged by what Leonard Bernstein said about Beethoven, so I went searching what more he did say about music. I found this video on which he talks at Harvard, where in the early seventies he did a series of 6 talks called ‘the unanswered question'.
Here at this video I feel he really touches upon the essence of music as the medium for our soul. I tried to write down what he says in this video, but some things I did not hear or understand well enough, like metaphor. But the overall line is extremely interesting, at least to me it is.
He starts with some demonstration on the piano in an attempt to show how he percieves certain music himself.
"But, did Beethoven feel all that, or even anything like it? Or did I just make up those feelings out of the bleu? Or are they in some way, to some degree related to Beethoven's feelings, which have been translated to me through his notes?
Of course we will never know, but the probability is that both are true. And if so we have just revealed a major ambiguity, a beautiful new semantic ambiguity to add to our fast growing list.
But whichever is true, the basic point remains, music does possess the power of expressivity. And the human being does innately possess the capacity to respond to it. Everyone agrees on that in one way or another. Even William James who regarded our reaction to music as nothing but a nervous tic.
Where they disagree is in making the distinction between what music expresses and how it expresses it. The what is very hard to pin down, as we have seen.
But the how, we do know about and that is metaphor. In any sense that music can be conscidered a language, (and there are some senses in which it can not be conscidered a language) in the sense in which it can be, it is a totally metaphorical language.
Conscider the word metaphor. Meta = beyond and phor = carry. Carying meaning beyond the literal, the tangeable, beyond the grossly semantic. To the selfcontained ‘ding an sich' of musical meaning.
Metaphore is the generator, the powerplant of music, just as it is of poetry. Aristotle puts metaphor midway between the unintelligeable and the commonplace. A marvealous remark. It is metaphor, he says, that most produces knowledge. The artist can not help but agree, nor can the lover of art.
It even more strikingly, he says, that metaphor accomplishes the supremely difficult task of providing a name for everything. And by everything he obviously meant our interiour lives. The things that can't be named otherwise. Our psychic landscapes and actions.
And it is thus that poetry and music, but especially music, through its specific and far reaching metaphorical powers, can and does name the unnamable. And communicate the unknowable".
Access: Public
Heel interessant Annemiek. leuk om te lezen, was nog niet eerder op je blog geweest.
“especially music, through its specific and far reaching metaphorical powers, can and does name the unnamable. And communicate the unknowable”.
But does it only so through the medium of our consciousness, one can listen and not hear or one can listen and hear., or do you think it has the power an sich to awaken us to hear?
Groetjes,
Lucienne
Hi Lucienne
How nice to see you here, I am glad to hear that you found it interesting.
You got me very much thinking with your question. So do we need to consciously listen to the music, to be able to communicate the unknowable? Or is listening itself enough, even without doing it consciously?
Personally I think it is the latter. I think our ‘psychic landschapes' contain so much which is unknown, even to ourself. It contains what we picked up as a child and belongs to our family and culture, as well as the universal and more mystical. But also our likes and dislikes regarding others.
And I think hearing certain music can activate our psyche, even when we are not aware of it, or maybe even just because we are not aware of it. And with certain music I mean music that resonates with that specific part of the psyche that wants to become aware.
So indeed I think that music itself has the power to awaken us. But it has to be te right music at the right time.
Well, that is how I see it, I guess. How do you see it?
Groetjes,
Annemieke
I am not sure really, Annemiek. I know that music for me can carry great metaphorical power but I have to be receptive to it.
Perhaps it is like you say the right music at the right time.
Sometimes music does awake me to something and now I am relating to classical music that perhaps I haven't been familiar with. It can strike at a note very deep within. But also there has been music I had to grow into. It just didn't seem to happen by magic.
I had to learn to listen to it, Opera is a good example for me of that.
So that's kind of why the question arose in me. I don't know if it's that important.
I am very happy that somehow in my life I have opened myself to classical music.
I am not very knowledgable about it, eventhough I have some beautiful music at home. But I can't listen to it all the time, I really somehow have to create space within me to enjoy and receive it .
I am happy I stopped by your blog, I will do so some more because I haven't found a discussion on classical music before yet here on Gaia, and I really appreciate it and perhaps might learn something on the way as well.
I saw you have something of Kathleen Ferrier here too. My parents used to listen to her, that's how I first became familiar with her. I listen to her sometimes at home as well as Aafje Heynes.
Next time I would like to share a piece with you I have at home. I'm not at home now (staying in A'dam a copple of days) so i can't remember the name now, but perhaps you will like it.
Heb je het trouwens een beetje naar je zin hier op Gaia? Ik ben heel blij met Gaia, het enige nadeel is dat ik ietsepietse verslaafd ben geworden, m.a.w. ik zit teveel achter de computer. Moet daarin wat meer balans vinden.
Fijne dag,
Lucienne.
Lucienne, you said:
“It can strike at a note very deep within. But also there has been music I had to grow into. It just didn't seem to happen by magic. I had to learn to listen to it, Opera is a good example for me of that. So that's kind of why the question arose in me. I don't know if it's that important.”
Personally I think it is very important. I have been thinking a lot about it, but can not put into words yet, how exactly I see that. But I will certainly try to do that in the next few days.
I would very much like to hear the piece you have at home. Wished I was in Amsterdam by the way, I love that city! I used to go there at least once a year, but it has been a while now.
Ja, ik heb het hier zeker heel erg naar mijn zin, maar het is inderdaad wel verslavend.
Groeten,
Annemieke
Ah, I think of a scene in Immortal Beloved, where the guy is listening to the music and Beethoven says to him that he isn't really hearing it. The guy doesn't get it and Beethoven then tells him the story behind why he was composing it. Then you see the guy has tears down his face listening, now that he really “hears” it!
When I used to play (viola), I would research the piece beyond the notes, so that I could feel the music in my soul beyond just being technical to playl. So I very much enjoy each of your music entries, full of translations, beautiful found recordings and discussions! I was even listening to Jonas Kaufmann, Romantic Arias (ahhh), the other day and thinking of your blog where there is another someone who loves to listen and talk about such music!
Thank you!
Erin
Erin, how great that you can play the viola (is that the same as violin), I sure wish I could. And I can totally understand that you researched the piece behind the notes, I think I would too.
I just followed the link and listened to Jonas Kaufmann, wow, what a voice, I had never heard of him.
About the scene in Immortal Beloved, I did not know what the scene was anymore, so I went looking. Is this the story behind why he was composing it?