What Music Does to You
Trying to ‘describe’ music; the feel of it and the effect particular composers have on you isn’t easy. Those who have kindly been reading these articles may well agree. I was reading an interview with the distinguished (and very modest) pianist Mitsuko Uchida the other day. Clearly she knows how to represent the essence of music in words as brilliantly as she does on the keyboard.
‘I want to play more and more Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven – and I shall slowly, slowly invade the world with my Bach’ she says. ‘I’m more and more drawn to those fundamental four composers. It’s almost frightening: there is something about them growing so big in my life that I feel I almost have to fight against them not to get completely consumed’
For her it was Schubert who ’was the one among all the great composers that I felt close to, even as a kid. I didn’t think I was close to Mozart at all. And I was right – you can’t get close to Mozart! You can get closer and closer to what he is doing, and you can hit him for a hundredth of a second now and then – but then he goes, and you have to let him go. But Schubert I felt was a kindred soul of mine. He can be alone with you. Mozart is running around, conversing with you, chasing you – there’s always something happening. But Schubert is a loner – so every lonely soul is touched by him’.
I know exactly what she means. I would go further in comparing the two composers; certainly more than I imagine Uchida would. In the end Mozart for me is glitteringly brilliant, whereas Schubert is a constant source of fascination and delight. Subjective of course, but however knowledgeable the experts may be, in the end there are no absolutes about musical appreciation.
What music does to you can be a shared experience, but in the end is personal to you alone.
B.R.
‘I want to play more and more Mozart, Schubert, and Beethoven – and I shall slowly, slowly invade the world with my Bach’ she says. ‘I’m more and more drawn to those fundamental four composers. It’s almost frightening: there is something about them growing so big in my life that I feel I almost have to fight against them not to get completely consumed’
For her it was Schubert who ’was the one among all the great composers that I felt close to, even as a kid. I didn’t think I was close to Mozart at all. And I was right – you can’t get close to Mozart! You can get closer and closer to what he is doing, and you can hit him for a hundredth of a second now and then – but then he goes, and you have to let him go. But Schubert I felt was a kindred soul of mine. He can be alone with you. Mozart is running around, conversing with you, chasing you – there’s always something happening. But Schubert is a loner – so every lonely soul is touched by him’.
I know exactly what she means. I would go further in comparing the two composers; certainly more than I imagine Uchida would. In the end Mozart for me is glitteringly brilliant, whereas Schubert is a constant source of fascination and delight. Subjective of course, but however knowledgeable the experts may be, in the end there are no absolutes about musical appreciation.
What music does to you can be a shared experience, but in the end is personal to you alone.
B.R.
posted by Euroresidentes at 11:24 AM
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