What is Refraction?

Refraction is the word Proust used to describe what happens to memory as it is transformed by emotion. A comparable transformation (refraction, if you will) occurs when a tone is permitted to be connected to emotion, not interpretative emotion as we are taught to understand the place of emotion in music, but to emotion aroused by the very nature of the sound itself: I like it; It makes me uncomfortable; I really do not like playing this note as it is given to me in this particular composition.

In order to be affected by Tonal Refraction one must do nothing more than pay attention at that level to one's own reactions. This has nothing to do with right notes and wrong notes.

The depth of Tonal Refraction was revealed to me by countless hours visualizing specific compositions, many of which had always been problematic to me. The result is an amazingly mathematical image of what is actually heard in playing. No less amazing is how often the image reveals something quite at odds with conventional theory.

Composers are not theorists. Players are not theorists.

Just because you are not Proust does not mean your memory is immune from his brilliant insight.