Monday, July 26, 2010

I have been trying to understand the writings of a prominent nineteenth-century music critic, Eduard Hanslick. As far as I can figure out, he is arguing against the emotional content of music, claiming for it instead something called beauty. Perhaps he was reacting against the overblown, emotionally charged hyperbole of much of the writing of his time, in which the words heroic and tragic were the most frequently used.

But there is the bath water and then there is the baby. Is color emotional? How can it not be? Doesn't everyone with a voice have a feeling associated with its intonation when singing, or speaking for that matter?