In the old days, people used to risk their lives in India or in the Americas in order to bring back products which now seem to us to have been of comically little worth.
Levi StraussRead
If the composer withholds more than we anticipate, we experience a delicious falling sensation; we feel we have been torn from a stable point on the musical ladder and thrust into the void.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses how composers can evoke strong emotions by surprising the listener with unexpected musical shifts.
Levi Strauss highlights the emotional response elicited by composers when they manipulate musical expectations. The 'delicious falling sensation' refers to the thrill and disorientation that listeners might feel as structures of stability in music are disrupted, allowing for a profound and sometimes unsettling experience that connects deeply with the essence of artistic expression.
Themes
MusicEmotionCompositionSurpriseArtistry
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a music theory class to discuss the impact of musical tension and resolution.
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All quotes →We can understand, too, that natural species are chosen not because they are 'good to eat' but because they are 'good to think.'
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