Classical musings

I've recently read two related books on the subject of music (a major non-professional interest): This is Your Brain on Music (by Daniel Levitin) and Why Classical Music Still Matters (by Lawrence Kramer). More on the books themselves another time perhaps, but through reading them I've been led back to listening to a genre that I'd moved away from for many years. I'm discovering a new appreciation for the complexity of classical music, and in particular am for the first time enjoying music of smaller groups (soloists, duets, quartets). Right now I am enraptured by a string quartet by Dvorak, his "American", opus 96, in particular the second Lento movement. It opens with a sublime melody sung by the violin, repeated by the viola (or perhaps the second violin?) and then broken down, rearranged, modulated, re-assembled to various stages of (in)completion until it is fully re-stated at the close of the movement. It's ravishing. What is a "melody"? Why do some series of notes constitute one, whereas others though interesting and enjoyable do not? And when there is no obvious melody, why is it still sometimes great music?

Arthur Clarke wrote a story about a scientist who sets his computer to analyzing all the catchiest tunes in history, trying to identify a common element. The computer succeeds, and then constructs and plays out the ultimate catchy tune, an earworm that runs through the scientist's head excluding all other thought and input, making him a vegetable for life. Luckily for the world, the night custodian is tone-deaf and turns off the speakers before anyone else can enter the room. It's similar to the Monty Python sketch about the joke so funny that it makes you die laughing. The British army uses it as a weapon during WWII, after translating it into German with teams of translators, each working on only one word. Silliness, but still appreciating melody and humor seem to be universal and possibly defining human attributes.

Our photo here is one of the two housecats, Pepper. She shares some attributes with us that are not definingly human!