[MD] Ham on Esthesia

[Ham Priday]

Hi Steve --

> Good points.  Well, I don't think those recordings ever change,
> but maybe it has something to do with the way we listen to music.
> Something about how we are "in the mood" for different kinds of
> music.  I might listen to, say, Hilary Hahn's Bach Concertos every
> day for a few weeks, then put it away for awhile, then get it out
> maybe a month later, etc...  I guess we are the Dynamic entity here,
> while the recordings are static.
>
> Also, I think one can focus on different parts of the music to
> listen for, and thus have a different experience.

Yes, I suspect that we always hear new things in these playbacks, which may
account for what you're calling DQ experience.  The interweaving of a second
theme or a contrapuntal line that we've missed before, for example.
Sometimes the piece can take on a whole new meaning, depending on one's
frame of mind at the time.

> "Strawberry Fields Forever" comes to mind, because I never
> picked out "I buried Paul" until I read about it.  Same thing when
> I learned that "Dancing in the Streets" by Martha and the Vandellas
> was about race riots.

I'm not a devotee of rap music (if that's an example), but you bring up a
point of curiosity about these contemporary "songs with a message".  How
much of their popularly is the message as opposed to the music?  I rarely
can pick out the lyrics amidst all the bombast, but I notice that the
younger generation can often quote them word for word.  Are they looking at
beat music as a way to identify with the rebellion of our age, or do you
think there is genuine artistic merit in this new "art form"?   (I'm
reminded of the traveling minstrels of medieval times who brought the latest
gossip to town through song, strumming their guitars to accompany their ad
hoc verses.  The musical value of the troubadour songs was probably the
equivalent of what cheerleaders do today at football pep rallys.)

But to get back to the aesthetics of music experience, there are two
classical pieces in particular that never fail to move me: the little tone
poem "The Swan of Touenela" by Sibelius, and the Elgar Cello Concerto
(especially as recorded by the late Jacqueline du Pré, whom I was fortunate
to hear perform it with the Phila. Orchestra, Barenboim conducting, shortly
before her untimely death in 1987.)  Interestingly, both are cello pieces;
and there is something almost human in the mournful timbre of the cello that
isn't matched by any other instrument.  Of course I'm also partial to the
Dvorak and Saint-Saens cello concertos.

What are your tastes as a violinist, Steve?  And, one more question -- If
you hadn't become acquainted with Pirsig, wouldn't you be persuaded, as I
am, that the beauty (value) of music is in "the ear of the beholder"?

Regards,
Ham