That paradise is hurled to nothingness

About

Musical form is particularly allusive. How do we organise a sequence of sonic events in our minds? What do we think of when we recall a particular piece of music? Perhaps we think of a salient event – a theme or a particularly dramatic moment – or an emotion experienced while listening, but somehow we also have a sense of the wholeness of the work, much like the memory of a work of architecture that we know well contains not just the façade but also the complex interplay of the internal spaces. Some musical works, however, are constructed with such clarity that the predominant internal formal process functions as an epigram for the piece as a whole, and this process may be the first the first thing that comes to mind when we think of the piece. Musical works with a clear audible process (or processes) have a particular richness, firstly because the process is central to their identity and secondly because, as we listen to these works, each moment, in addition to its sensual/gestural value, has a special significance generated by its clear contribution to the whole.