The Box of Words

Hannah Arendt was clear on the subject of how trust in the ear was never brought up in all of her education. I have long felt that precisely that trust was missing in most of my music training. That I learned anything about it - that it was even an issue - came via the committed listening of several individual musicians: Fenner Douglass, Hans Neumann, Fritz Buechner, Miecyzslaw Horszowski; the fearlessly present listeners who show up at my house-concerts; and the many children with whom I have had the privilege of interacting over a lifetime of teaching.

The music world has created a box of words within which security is guaranteed. But is it relevant to the world of the ear? Confusing music notation with printed text has definitely not helped.