Sunny Days in Heaven
Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven


Friday, May 28, 2004  

Today's Quote:

Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing.

John Erskine
(1879 - 1951)

This isn't true for a number of reasons. One, I get tired of the cliche about music being a universal language. Music is personal and cultural, but not exactly universal in reality. Two, music is not really a language. It is a series of tones, timbres, and rhythms. A-440 doesn't actually convey an idea or act as a sign for something else.

But if I bang on middle C and only middle C for a half hour at an audience, that is mean and sarcastic music. Something John Cage specialized in.

posted by Mark Butterworth | 11:04 AM |

links
archives