“There is a sense in which the naïve listener retains an advantage over his learned peers. He, like the child who only up to a certain age may learn easily and naturally a number of languages, may, by listening, learn of the wider possibilities of musical languages. To listen is to let music speak on its own ground.

“But the problem is that none of us are any longer naïve listeners. We are already plunged into the thought formed by our mother tongues. Only by a ‘second naïveté’ can we approach a purity of listening. This second naïveté comes only by concentration and a willingness to suspend our own tongues and beliefs. […]

“Music will speak but it will speak in many tongues, and those tongues will be rich and give forth strange new sounds as well as familiar old ones. To me, the best music education is one which emphasizes the multilingual. As a ‘naïve’ listener I will harken to all the voices.”

(Don Ihde, “A Philosopher Listens”)

September 23, 2011, 11:26am