An unusually insightful music theorist responded to my Tonal Refraction method by suggesting I read A History of Reading by Alfredo Manguel. Wise suggestion.
It has only gradually dawned on me to what extent my work is really about reading, specifically about the elusiveness of reading notated music. Manguel, a reader and writer rather than a scientist or historian, examines reading from all kinds of points of view, including reading pictures and objects--the kind of reading most of us don't even think of as reading.
In so doing he puts his finger on the real issue, one that has baffled many generations of thinking souls in many cultures. What is real, after all? What does reality consist of? Which is more real, the letter, the word, the thing referred to, the image of the thing, etc.?
Last night, describing the pleasure I take in reading this book, a poet friend leapt to the sacraments. I was dumbfounded. What does this have to do with it?
This morning it is clear to me how it is related. That involves yet another reality: mystery. Yes, mystery is a reality. It must be, for otherwise who would presume to use a notational system for ecstatic experiences of any sort or dimension? Why would anyone bother?
Admitting the reality of mystery is no simple matter. It first entered my own thick skull in the music of Palestrina, with which I was involved on a daily basis every day of my high school years.
