Mozart, the Niaux Caves, and Other Questions That Defy Their Answers...
The words written in this particular blog are merely musings that occasionally swirl around my milieu from time to time, in various forms and shapes; then simply vaporize - so please do forgive my particular form of involuntary Quixotism:
Periodically, when it is necessary to gaze into a mirror, the sense that the image I see represents the greatest mystery in my consciousness.
In my composition "Enigma" for violin and piano, I attempt to represent the Three Questions "Who am I?"
"What am I?" "Why am I Here?", and the piece does not truly end, as there are no available answers to me. The great American composer Charles Ives dealt with the same issue in his "Unanswered Question," written in 1908.
Then I can find myself meandering to, say, Mozart, and two letters, which contain statements that are either cryptic or incredibly open and simplistic - I cannot choose between the two:
"Everything's composed - but not written yet."
"The music? It's already there - it just has to be written down."
Jerry Saltz,the music critic, is simply blown over upon his visit to the Niaux Caves in Southwestern France, when he gazes upon cave drawings that are about 13,000 to 15,000 years in age, that demonstrate Linear Perspective, which art history books state did not come into being until the Renaissance. In actuality, some of these ancient drawings contained examples of Reverse Perspective, which induces the viewer to see smaller subjects closer than larger ones.Saltz has written about his defining encounter with these wall and floor drawings, if you'd like to read about his experience.
Man and his Art; arguably, his most powerful languages-
Is there a Form or Shape to the limits of this creature, that we behold in the mirror?
Just Who? or What are we?
My mirror tells me nothing.What I see tells me absolutely nothing.
Oh, well...
Periodically, when it is necessary to gaze into a mirror, the sense that the image I see represents the greatest mystery in my consciousness.
In my composition "Enigma" for violin and piano, I attempt to represent the Three Questions "Who am I?"
"What am I?" "Why am I Here?", and the piece does not truly end, as there are no available answers to me. The great American composer Charles Ives dealt with the same issue in his "Unanswered Question," written in 1908.
Then I can find myself meandering to, say, Mozart, and two letters, which contain statements that are either cryptic or incredibly open and simplistic - I cannot choose between the two:
"Everything's composed - but not written yet."
"The music? It's already there - it just has to be written down."
Jerry Saltz,the music critic, is simply blown over upon his visit to the Niaux Caves in Southwestern France, when he gazes upon cave drawings that are about 13,000 to 15,000 years in age, that demonstrate Linear Perspective, which art history books state did not come into being until the Renaissance. In actuality, some of these ancient drawings contained examples of Reverse Perspective, which induces the viewer to see smaller subjects closer than larger ones.Saltz has written about his defining encounter with these wall and floor drawings, if you'd like to read about his experience.
Man and his Art; arguably, his most powerful languages-
Is there a Form or Shape to the limits of this creature, that we behold in the mirror?
Just Who? or What are we?
My mirror tells me nothing.What I see tells me absolutely nothing.
Oh, well...
Labels: The greatest mystery of all?...
posted by LH at
1:31 PM
1 Comments:
Thank you for this one! Meatier, tougher brain food is definitely called for at regular intervals. Something with which to tweak the "oh, everyone knows that" mundanity.
I like to think that the visual artist must necessarily take on the same question: everything has already been drawn/painted --we just don't have the full set of tools yet.
--Peter V.
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