The issue arises, thanks to the last post, about the connection between body and the not-explicitly physical, call it what you will. Having been raised in a culture in which body and mind/spirit are considered opposites, it is difficult to imagine a reality in which the two are fused, inseparable. For me, this is where the speed factor enters in. The ear conveys information to the brain 1,000 times faster than any other perception: Hudspeth has measured that speed. This reality surpasses any natural phenomenon within my power to imagine. It may explain, indeed, why music speaks so immediately to forces within us – whether as players or listeners – that so readily find outlet in emotion.
After one house concert recently, a listener confided that she had been moved to tears. She wondered whether it was my intention as performer to evoke such emotion. My answer was a clear and definite “no.” If she had been so moved it was the sound itself that had moved her: the experience was hers. That does not mean that others present did not share it; but the expression of it was probably the result of a combination of elements that she brought to the moment.