contemplation of the ideal form
03/11/12 06:58
It occurs to me that one of the most likely ways that the idea of contemplating music might be construed is in the sense of pondering something. If that angle is pursued, one is then working with music from the memory, music out of its physical embodiment as sound, removed from its normal medium of time. This would point to the other primary approach to musical analysis, linked to the Platonic concept of the ideal form. The way I have gotten to a consideration of contemplating music is from the other side, of course, the phenomenological angle from which I seek to understand the process of listening. It may just be that the role of contemplation is to help bridge the mental/intellectual gap between these divergent viewpoints. Is it the way to unify doing/not doing I wrote of day before yesterday? Is it the better corollary, the real listening/not listening? As nice and neat as that solution may appear, it seems to be an illusion, and not in the same realm as the doing/not doing of Zen in and of itself. Possibly to listen, then sit with the awareness of what was just heard is a close analog, but thinking about the music per se is not, even though it may be helpful, productive, or enjoyable.