Notes on Listening

Author: Kunxi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Music is one of the most astonishing means to move the heart. —Goethe The door to music should be open. Start by not understanding and keep listening until you do. In the scores, you will always find something new, and sometimes it takes double the effort to understand what the composer wants you to understand. For music, love is the most important thing you should possess in your heart. —Maestro Claudio Abbado I greatly admire the following words by British writer E.M. Forster: "There is only one way to go forward in art if you don’t know it; recognizing art will lead you to many paths, very broad paths." Not listening to music won’t cause any loss, but listening to music and falling in love with it, as Forster said, will make you feel much happier in life. Metaphorically speaking, it’s like the path ahead becoming infinitely broad. Music is a form of enjoyment, a cultural refinement. After long exposure, love will naturally arise, so it is love that leads you to music, and it is also love that forms your unique musical perception. This book is a collection of essays on personal experiences with listening to music. The author, Kunxi, is an amateur who loves music. In the book, he discusses how he went from not listening to music to gradually learning to love it, as well as the experiences he gained from world-class masters and classic compositions, hoping to inspire those who don’t listen to music to fall in love with it. The author’s only wish is to spark an interest in music among those who don’t listen to it through his scattered thoughts on music. Therefore, the book is light, simple, and free of obscure theories, making it worth reading whether as an introductory guide for beginners in music or as a leisurely read. It is not a specialized academic work on music but rather a small book by a music enthusiast—or perhaps an outsider to music—about his feelings toward music. These scattered thoughts about music, about composers, about the subtle presence of music in poetry, painting, and novels, share commonalities or differences, along with some musical etiquette and anecdotes from the music world, all of which can be found in this modestly titled "small book for outsiders." In short, hearing the music, feeling it in the heart, and being moved by nature, led to the creation of this "Notes on Listening to Music."