Western Classical Music: The Ultimate in Human Creation
I had an atypical relationship with music for a middle class kid growing up in America in the 60s and 70s in that I never purchased a recording of rock & roll, or any other popular music of the day. My mother tried to get me drawn to music through guitar lessons. I might have made it through two of them. I was too interested in sports. She knew how to play the piano to such an extent that we had a lovely baby grand piano in our house. But I only remember her playing one piece, very rarely, the Chopin – Heroic Polonaise (Op. 53 in A Flat Major). In sum, I just had no passion for music of any kind.
My interest in music changed drastically during my university years. I fell on a television presentation of Beethoven’s late string quartets on PBS. At some moment during that broadcast I came to the realization that this was music I enjoyed. Moreover, I was enthused to hear more and learn more about music like this; that is, western classical music. I described my music epiphany to a basketball friend who I was surprised to learn liked classical music. He introduced me to a classical music record club. The first record I ever bought was Bach’s Greatest Hits. I can’t begin to estimate the number of hours I spent in the music listening room at the student union. I started to go to concerts. My line became, “I like the music of the 60s . . . the 1760s and the 1860s.”
To put the effects of music into words is not a trivial task. The musical influence on all aspects of the human condition from psychology to physiology have been studied and shown to be significant. Consider what I wrote in a review of a poetry book about “Leo Tolstoy’s exposition ‘What is Art?’. Tolstoy on art is idiosyncratic to say the least. He criticizes virtually all so-called art produced since the Renaissance. He even has deep criticism of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and his own great novels! Tolstoy believed that art is the communication to other people of the artist’s experienced feelings, expressing them in a way that others, really all people everywhere, can understand those feelings. Art should have no technical finery, no complexity, not even beauty or aesthetics of any kind. Art should be universally available, not just for the rich or a particular ethnic group. An
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
