The Tyranny Of Conscious Thought
Reddit loves this quote:
Which may or may not be due to Thomas Beecham. (Image via weheartit.com).
My initial reaction to this is to agree with the top rated comment in the thread discussing the quote:
“But good music makes me think. It’s a different, more contemplative type of thinking, but it’s most definitely conscious”
But… now I can’t tell. Do I agree or not? It’s really hard to recapture the feeling of listening to music, when you aren’t actually doing just that. I guess it doesn’t have to be either one or the other — perhaps the best music (“best” music) makes you do both of these. At times it demands to be analyzed and consciously processed. At other times, in other situations, it pushes and pulls at your thoughts like a leaf twisting between eddies.
I’m partial to my favorite pieces partially because they make sense. I feel like I “understand” them, that the turns the melodies and harmonies and rhythms take follow a logic. Listening to them makes me feel like a child hearing a favorite bedtime story for the hundredth time: even though you know what is going to happen, you are captivated by the unfolding.
This isn’t exactly a conscious fascination. I don’t think: the violins are going to drop off and then the timpani will roll the whole orchestra into a crescendo. Instead, I can feel it coming.
Maybe I agree with that quote more than originally anticipated…