Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Wilde thoughts about music

From The Critic as Artist by Oscar Wilde "After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own. Music always seems to me to produce that effect. It creates for one a past of which one has been ignorant, and fills one with a sense of sorrows that have been hidden from one's tears. I can fancy a man who had led a perfectly commonplace life, hearing by chance some curious piece of music, and suddenly discovering that his soul, without his being conscious of it, had passed through terrible experiences, and known fearful joys, or wild romantic loves, or great renunciations."

1 comment:

Shantanu said...

This makes sense to me. I discovered strange emotions inside me when I first listened to some of my favourite music. Like I became conscious of my hopelessly romantic heart when I heard the 3rd movement from Beethoven's ninth symphony.