6 | Conclusion
“All music is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments,
It is not the violins and the cornets, it is not the oboe nor the beating drums, nor the score of the baritone singer singing his sweet romanza, nor that of the men’s chorus, nor that of the women’s chorus,
It is nearer and farther than they.”
For Walt Whitman, music was always both mystical and precise.
A few thoughts in conclusion: not so much a conclusion to this chapter, but rather to our total effort in this book as a whole.
In the introduction to Unit I, on page 2, we observed that the love and understanding of music is best nurtured by listening again and again to particular pieces. Some musical terminology has been introduced that should help clarify listening, and we have led a guided tour through the history of Western music, from Hildegard of Bingen in her convent to Tania León in her recording studio, by way of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, and Stravinsky. There have been a number of detours beyond Europe, and a fairly long side trip to popular music — but on all routes, the most important thing we’ve done is listen.
Surveys show that many students hang on to the recordings that come with Listen, even while they dispose of the book itself. Anyone who keeps the music, we reason, expects or half expects to play it again sometime, and so long as that happens we are more than happy to see the book — which is only here to introduce and explain the music and put it in context — fall away. Teachers are great hopers. We hope, though we’ll never know, that sometime in the future you will find yourself listening again to some of the music you were introduced to in Listen.
