Again The Influence of Klee? Perhaps....

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"Bricks" crocheted of recycled fibers while riding New York City mass transit.  It beats getting mad at traffic delays.  One of the seven String Improvisations on sale now.

Full Spectrum  mostly wool 71" x 44"

Listening: The Missing Element in Music Appreciation

Without listening music has no meaning.  The listener brings as much to the sense of a work of music as does the composer or the performer.

This observation was demonstrated very intelligently by Viktor Zuckerkandl, whose work set me off on my life's journey of relating music to human beings and via music relating myself to others--family, friends, the population at large, whoever would take it in.

We do not take listening seriously in contemporary culture.  It is almost frowned upon as being too intimate an activity, like Emily Dickinson's secret, sitting in the middle and knowing while everyone else dances around in a ring supposing.

Music does not consist of themes and forms except via the craft of the composer.  It is the composer's job to organize vibrations however she finds sensible so as to compel listening on the part of anyone who will take them (i.e., the vibrations) in.

All too often music is performed as though it is a matter of getting the punctuation correct rather than even the performers having to listen to the sounds they make.

Thus they become the vassal with the pea-shooter aiming peas into the open mouth of King Midas so that he can swallow the peas without chewing them, digesting them before they turn into gold and break his teeth. (Cf. Milt Gross:  Nize Baby, a brilliant collection of "ferry tails.")