“Say you listened to religious music sung in another language or without voices, and you didn’t think of God. Say you decided Mozart’s “Ave Verum Corpus” expressed lust or racism. Who knows what Mozart thought of when he wrote it. He may have been thinking about his cable bill, or how he wished he’d composed last month instead of playing Xbox, and then he wouldn’t have all these deadlines. Berry asked Mr. Allen about this before Wednesday’s rehearsal, while the other choirboys practiced knife-th...rowing in the Twelve Step room. “It depends—on whether you think of music as signal or carrier,” said Mr. Allen. “Huh?” said Berry. “I mean, does music convey something? Or is it enough for music to convey itself? Maybe there isn’t any information or ideas in music—like emotion or whatever—there’s just patterns and relationships between notes.” Berry liked talking to Mr. Allen about this stuff even when Mr. Allen didn’t make sense. “But if music doesn’t have to say anything besides its own stuff, how does that make it Goddy or whatever?”MoreLessRead More Read Less
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