This is a variation of the 123-5 meme which involves tagging five other bloggers. I've been tagged by Dylan. Here's the deal:
- Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
- Open the book to page 123.
- Find the fifth sentence
- Post the next three sentences.
- Tag five bloggers.
I picked up Music and the Ineffable by Vladimir Jankélévitch (Princeton University Press, trans. Carolyn Abbate, 2003).
And more still: even in this "moment," the musical-ness of music will often be due to an even briefer conjunction, the briefest instant within a brief moment, an opportune minute, one beat of a single measure–like the ravishing chord in Chabrier's Sulamite, like the captivating harmonic sequence in Chaikovsky's Dumka, or the Gregorian cadence at the end of Fauré's fifth piano prelude. The Charm hangs on the impoderable musical-ness of a brief occasion, a lightning strike of an event.
But can one install wisdom on the seat of this delicate imperceptible point in an ephemeral instant?
I reckon old Vladimir was asking the question posed by music which is also a vital question for thought. Generally I'd say it was the question of the present moment, though as Paul might want to point out, my inclination would be to jump to the question of how one experiences the present moment–and so perhaps you can see one reason why the question appeals to me as it arises from thinking about music rather than, say, calculus.
I tag Nick,Matt,Roman,Yusef and Keith.
Whew! I made it without crashing. I'll be on shaky legs until next Monday or so.
Labels: Jankélévitch, meme