At 05:32 PM 4/30/02, Theresa Muir wrote:
>Well, simply from observation, I'd say that most people seem to do just
>that. It's not inappropriate or unreasonable, however, to expect people
>who feel called upon to do more than that--- i.e. musicologists, etc.--
>to dig a bit deeper.
This matches my experience. I work on music of the sixteenth century
because it speaks to me on an emotional level -- I don't think that is is
possible for there to be a bit of music more beautifully wrenching than the
last phrase of Monteverdi's "Hor che'l ciel" -- but once I've acknowledged
that emotional response, what more is there to say on that level? "I like
it. It moves me." What then? Fortunately, however, as soon as I start
talking about *how* and *why* that emotional response happens, I'm engaged
in analysis. I started down this whole path because I wanted to understand
exactly why the music worked like that. Eleven years ago, I would have
been disgusted at myself for having spent eleven years in this study
without having found that answer. Now, I think it's magical that I
understand how the Monteverdi works, that I can account for every note in
the piece, and that it still has such a visceral effect on me.
(On the other hand, I remember talking with one of the freshmen I was
teaching while I was working on an analysis paper on Schubert's great
Sonata in B-flat. "What are you writing about it?" she asked. "How it
makes you feel?" And that puzzled me, but only in retrospect. That sonata
fascinates me on a technical level, and it delights me, but it doesn't hit
me like a punch, as the last phrase of the Monteverdi does. Does that mean
that the Schubert is a lesser work, or just subtler and more reserved? I
don't know. I love them both, for different reasons.)
So I suppose that my answer is that we (the implicative we, not the royal
we) don't discuss the emotional impact of music because it is a deeply
personal response, largely intractable to analysis and discussion. Also,
most of us are in this field because we have a love for music, which often
comes down to a strong emotional reaction to it one way or the other.
Charlton
Charlton Wilbur
Holyoke, Massachusetts
cwilbur@chromatico.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 30 2002 - 20:36:17 PDT