{"id":798,"date":"2015-06-26T08:32:48","date_gmt":"2015-06-26T12:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/?p=798"},"modified":"2015-06-26T08:32:48","modified_gmt":"2015-06-26T12:32:48","slug":"music-as-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/2015\/06\/music-as-thought.html","title":{"rendered":"Music as Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/PE110405023_th.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-687 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/PE110405023_th.jpg\" alt=\"PE110405023_th\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/PE110405023_th.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/PE110405023_th-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>Music is sound, of course, and that is an enormous universe to occupy. But for me, music is also thought, a way of thinking. Just as we can think of a flower, or a mathematical equation, or a relationship we have with someone, we can also \u2013 to coin a verb \u2013 <em>music<\/em> about those things. Not everyone will relate to what we are musicing about, but that\u2019s okay: not everyone shares our way of thinking. In fact, any time one other person understands our thoughts, our music, that\u2019s actually an amazing occurrence, not something we should take lightly.<\/p>\n<p>I gave a presentation on my work yesterday to 30+ composers at the Charlotte New Music Festival, and was astonished once again to see my thoughts communicate, to hear evidence that the way I had presented sounds connected with several people in the room, connections I can make with others in my species that \u2013 with all due respect to the many other species who share this planet \u2013 simply don\u2019t happen with other creatures.<\/p>\n<p>It matters little to me if these connections are inherent or learned: that amounts to the same thing. We learn what we are inherently capable of learning. And the degree to which any of us have the ability to think through music is an extraordinary cognitive refinement, either way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Music is sound, of course, and that is an enormous universe to occupy. But for me, music is also thought, a way of thinking. Just as we can think of a flower, or a mathematical equation, or a relationship we have with someone, we can also \u2013 to coin a verb \u2013 music about those [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":799,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798\/revisions\/799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}