Topic

Music

Music in this collection arrives as one of the few human activities that the philosophers agree on without argument. Nietzsche's without-music-life-would-be-a-mistake is the strongest claim available — not that music improves life but that it is necessary to it. Tagore on music filling the infinite between two souls makes it a medium of connection rather than expression: music occupies the gap that words cannot cross. Butler's violin-solo-in-public is the most self-aware: life requires learning the instrument while performing, and the performance is continuous. Keble on peace-as-the-first-thing-the-angels-sang gives music a theological primacy: it is not only human but the original language of the sacred. The anonymous those-who-wish-to-sing-always-find-a-song is the democratic version: music is not restricted to those with training but is available to anyone who wishes to make it. Beaumont on love and rhyme places music at the intersection of the two forces that have always seemed most closely related.