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Music Quickens Time

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As in: The NEW YORK TIMES, dated November 24, 2008 offered an overview of a new book entitled "Music Quickens Time" Verso Books) by Daniel Barenboim. I recently read a book by Daniel Barenboim entitled "Everything is Connected: The Power of Music" (published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson-London). ATTENTION TO SHOPPERS.....these two books are exactly the same book. Don't purchase them twice!!! Although Mr. Barenboim is worth reading twIce, even many times, be cautioned that there is a confusion in the purchasing approaches to this item. There is no musician more impassioned with the gift of music to the world than Daniel Barenboim, and no more committed to peace that music is capable of bringing to all nations and the world. Such maxims as: "when you teach, you learn and when you give, you receive" are entwined in the process, the actions and life of this great individual and superb musician.

Conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim's Music Quickens Time is a philosophical expedition into how people perceive music in their lives. Barenboim's unique multifaceted viewpoint of music stems from his experience and knowledge that has grown through performance, instruction, and contemplation. In his first book, A Life in Music, Barenboim hints at the topics in Music Quickens Time, but it is more of an autobiographical work. In Barenboim's book that he wrote in conjunction with Edward Said, Parallels and Paradoxes, they explored the connection between music and society. Music Quickens Time is the latest work of Barenboim that began when he was invited by Harvard University in 2006 to deliver the Norton lectures. The lectures provided Barenboim with the opportunity to collect his thoughts on music and life and Music Quickens Time is the further development of the topics he spoke on during the Norton lectures.

This text may not ever make it onto the syllabus of a college level course, but it should definitely be recommended to anyone who has a curiosity about the parallels between music and life. Music Quickens Time provokes thought on a level that is often either ignored or altogether unknown. Anyone who has ever questioned the validity of music in school curricula or the value of having a symphony orchestra in their city should definitely consider reading this book.

Barenboim has many thoughts to explore in this text. In order to express himself to the fullest extent, he formatted his book into two parts. Part one is a philosophical exploration of music entitled, "The Power of Music." In concurrence, Part two gives a differing perspective by providing articles, interviews, and reflections upon great figures in music entitled, "Variations."

Part one takes up approximately fifty-one percent of the book containing a prelude and six chapters. From the opening words of the prelude, Barenboim's unique viewpoint of how music impacts our lives is evident. He concisely explains how sound is more privileged than words, that the cacophonous omnipresence of music in our society is a hindrance, and that his book is not exclusively for musicians nor non-musicians.

In the first chapter entitled, "Sound and Thought" Barenboim explains his thoughts on how it is impossible to speak about music, but that he has always been intrigued by the impossible and thus he attempts the impossible by speaking about his reactions and perceptions of music. He provides the reader with his thoughts on sound and its relation to silence. Later in the chapter he connects music to life by emphasizing that we cannot only learn about music, but also from music. To end the chapter, Barenboim relates music to history in that, like history, music moves in time and a single event can irrevocably alter everything.

The second chapter entitled, "Listening and Hearing" explains how we can learn much about life from the structures, principles, and laws inherent in music. He emphasizes the importance of training the ear, because the ears are the organs of instruction. He relates and expands the importance of developing the ear to the growth of individuals and their place and function within society.

Chapter four is entitled, "Freedom of Thought and Interpretation." This chapter is possibly the most philosophical writing to be found in the book. Barenboim uses Spinoza's Ethics as a basis for thinking about intellect and emotion and how music successfully balances the two paving the way for his comparison of how a nation's constitution is similar to a musical score. This connection effectively expands upon the title of the chapter by explaining the impact of interpretation upon written documents and how thinking is a result of a dialectic between intellect and emotion.

The next chapter, "The Orchestra" is primarily an introduction into Barenboim's political insights concerning the conflict in the Middle East. The main connection he makes between music and life is that, like an orchestra performer, people have to both perform their individual duties and listen to everything going on around them in order to successfully coexist.

"A Tale of Two Palestinians" elaborates upon an instance when music conquered all. Barenboim tells a tale of how a young man rises above the depressive atmosphere created by the volatile relationship between Palestinians and Israelis through music. This chapter does not have the same flow or emphasis on music, but rather focuses on the conflict between groups of people. As such, it seems to be out of place when viewed in relation to the previous and following chapters.

The final chapter discusses directly the power of music. In this chapter, Barenboim struggles with music as the ultimate model for society and that in order for music to provide this model we must understand it and not merely react to it on an animal level. He emphasizes that the power of music lies in the ability of music to speak to all aspects of being human - the animal, the emotional, the intellectual, and the spiritual. In short, Barenboim explains that music has the ability to teach us everything and that we should develop the organs of instruction in order to recognize the power of music.

Part two is a collection of articles, interviews, and personnel reflections. This portion of the book that encompasses approximately forty-two percent of the text provides examples of the previously presented ideas. It is a completely different kind of writing and requires a different mind set when reading. This text would have benefited greatly if part one had been extended and a book published. Part two would make a good companion to part one in a separate book, but it is a difficult transition to make when presented in the current format.

The philosophical nature of this book requires the reader to think deeply. Barenboim provokes thought and invites the reader to think on what he presents him or her. The comparisons made between music and life highlights the strengths and weaknesses of what it means to be human. Anyone interested in the interconnectedness of all things would find that this book offers a rare viewpoint on the topic.

I am a lover of classical music and the piano. I am not a musician. Barenboim's explanations applied to specific classical works are interesting, but I don't really understand them. He has excellent chapters giving his insights and opinions on Mozart and Bach. He explains why Mozart is preferable to Brahms and then why such comparisons are not really relevant. More paradox. The book is not as well-written or detailed as I would have preferred, but Mr. Barenboim does a really good job of explaining how music and composers (Mozart) employed paradox is their compositions; e.g., the tragic has touches of comedy and vice versa, heavy and light, etc. If you are a relative novice in music history, this book has appeal. I've listened to Barenboim for years, particularly playing the Mozart piano concertos. It is a nice supplement to listening pleasure.

After seeing an interview with Barenboim on "Charlie Rose" I rushed to purchase this book, with the hope that the author succinctly wove the fibers of music through life and the world, deftly illustrating connections which ultimately prove the value of music not only aesthetically but also pragmatically.

I was disappointed. From the first paragraphs Barenboim laid out the problematic issues the rest of the book would include. Chapter titles are at best not specific and at worst misleading and confusing. The weaving of music into society looks more like a philosophical view of music, (somewhat) supported by the great thinkers of the past, followed by the briefest of mention tying the issue to the modern world. It appears that the topic of weaving together music and the world was given to the author after the book was written, forcing Barenboim to angerly insert paragraphs at whim. Also, when discussing Spinoza, of whom the author claims to be a huge far, he proposes furthering the philosophers' ideas into intelligence and other matters. The way in which Barenboim writes this section is trite and makes me think of Dr. Phil adding his two-cents to William James or James Dobson to Martin Luther.

The central chapter of this book, "The Orchestra," includes an account of DB's work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a group of Israeli and Palestinian musicians which meet to perform works of Western classical music together, even in dangerous parts of the world. This section is heart felt and effectively written, leading the reader to understand how passionate DB is about his revolutionary undertaking.

Soon after, though, the real book ends and part begins, entitled "Variations." This is simply a collection of essays, interviews, and reflections on music and life. While there are interesting yet far from original ideas presented in this collection of previously released material, to end the book in this way leads me to believe his page quota had not been met and rather than expand the ideas of relating music to culture, life, and the world we live in, which he easily could have done, Barenboim opted to simply republish, republish, republish.

While writing a scholarly volume on the real-world importance of music is a noble and I think quite needed addition to our shelves, Barenboim comes up short in "Music Quickens Time." Organization of material into subtitled sections, expanded ideas on the correlation between music and culture, and a stronger grasp of the scientific and philosophical issues presented could have made this work more effective and enjoyable to read. The way it reads now, DB's book more appropriately should be entitled "Reading this makes time stand still."

Just as I finished reading this book of essays by Daniel Barenboim, newspaper headlines exploded with word of renewed and terrible conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. That news made a sobering counterpoint to Barenboim's plea for mutual concessions, understanding and good will between the two parties.

What can a musician, even a world-famous one like Barenboim, contribute to the debate on this frightening problem?

First of all, Barenboim has done something concrete about it by helping to organize an orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan, in which young players from both sides meet, rehearse, work together and --- perhaps --- begin to understand one another's points of view. Secondly, he has made an example of himself by accepting Palestinian citizenship in addition to his own Jewish heritage. Third, he has spoken out publicly for dialogue and mutual respect in a situation to which he insists there is no military solution. He insists, in that regard, that the Palestinians have a right to an independent state of their own

Daniel Barenboim, known worldwide as a pianist and conductor, is no dreamy-eyed do-gooder. He knows the depth of hatred that this issue has generated. His book does not weave unrealistic fantasies of optimism about a quick solution. He simply says --- over and over --- that there has to be "give" on both sides, there has to be understanding and accommodation, there somehow has to be a beginning of trust, there has to be willingness to consider the other side's point of view.

And he thinks music can help. This unconventional idea will probably amuse readers who fail to see the connection. Such people will write Barenboim off as a man carried away by his love for the music that defines his own life. For instance, he compares the two opposing political positions to two subjects in a complex fugue. Neither is independent of the other. Neither is more important than the other. Yet they coexist in perfect synergy. Mastery of this idea could help produce, he says, people "more apt to listen to and understand several points of view at once." Music, he argues, might teach us all "the importance of the interconnection between transparency, power and force." In music, as in life, he says, nothing is totally independent. Everything is connected. It is at least a novel way of looking at the problem.

But this book is not just a political tract with musical trimmings. There is a lot of thoughtful discussion of music and musicians as well, though in those, his language can become opaque and cliché-prone. There are discussions of Schumann and Mozart. There are tributes to Pierre Boulez, Wilhelm Furtwangler, and especially to the late writer, teacher and political activist Edward Said, who was his partner in creating the West-Eastern Divan project. About half of the book is made up of previously published pieces culled from various sources. Some of these can stand on their own literary feet apart from their sources, and some cannot. But they are all thought-provoking.

He repeats and amplifies his well-known contention that banning the music of Richard Wagner in Israel is a tragic and unnecessary mistake. He details his reservations about the early music movement's pursuit of "historical" performance practice. He takes up the cudgels in favor of close and attentive listening to music rather than its use as mere background noise. And he admits that writing about music is a near-impossible task, because if we could express the essence of music in words, there would be no need for the music. As one who has spent his life writing about music, I second that motion.

Music, to Daniel Barenboim's mind, is "the wisdom that becomes audible to the thinking ear," or a bit more concisely "the idea written in sounds." That's not a bad try at expressing the inexpressible. You may not agree with everything Barenboim has to say, but writing like that will make you think, and that's a start --- in politics as in art.

--- Reviewed by Robert Finn

Daniel Barenboim is one of the world's greatest living conductors. This Argentine-born, Israeli child prodigy began publicly performing the piano at the age of seven before moving to Europe to pursue further studies in music. During his youth, he encountered the legendary German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, whose profound, probing, and philosophical approaches to music have become the paragon after which he patterned himself. Indeed, there is no one today I would rather hear conduct the operas of Wagner and the symphonies of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler. As a pianist, only a handful can contest him in the keyboard masterpieces of Bach, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Chopin and many of the aforementioned masters.

Barenboim, however, is not merely a musician. He is also an international ambassador of peace who chooses to speak through the universal language of music. In Wagner's Bayreuth Festival, a temple of music tainted with the vestiges of the Nazi regime, Barenboim was the first Jewish conductor to be constantly invited for nearly two decades to direct its prestigious summer festivals. He is also an outspoken critic of Israel and has strongly supported Palestinian rights since the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Together with his best friend Edward Said, he formed the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, an ensemble of Israeli, Palestinian, and Arab musicians who congregate not only for the sake of music, but also to symbolize a utopian state of peace in the war-torn Middle East.

The conductor is also a prolific writer, having published multiple articles in prestigious international publications like France's Le Monde and Germany's Der Tagesspiegel. Last year, he released his third book "Music Quickens Time," a collection of thought-provoking essays about the inherent truths in music and the philosophical lessons that revolutionaries like Mozart, Schumann and Bach are able to engender in their unique approaches to the art form. In this slender book, Daniel Barenboim eloquently shows how the fibers of music are intrinsically connected with the threads of life, unlocking a gateway for it to instruct us in exploring how we live, and to illuminate and find a resolution to many current, intractable issues.

His prelude begins with the words, "This is not a book for musicians, nor is it one for non-musicians, but rather for the curious mind that wishes to discover the parallels between music and life and the wisdom that becomes audible to the thinking ear." As an ambassador of music, Barenboim manages to effectively communicate certain human fundamentals through examples that expound on music's spatial and temporal relations, its innately pragmatic interconnections, its symbolic philosophies, and its undergirding motif of totality that shed light on a perspective constantly recapitulated in our symphony of life.

He urges readers to incorporate a culture of active and intelligent listening, to develop "the education of the ear." Although Barenboim is one of the world's most prestigious conductors, he argues that music should not be viewed as elite or esoteric; that education and consequently interest and curiosity are essential to its accessibility. He also suggests that a culture of listening is just as essential to an understanding of music as it is to the functioning of society. These are words of wisdom from a man who, on top of being able to converse fluently in at least six languages, commands mastery over the dialects of harmony, tonality and rhythm.

As a figure who advocates peace in the Middle East, he associates his rich musical life strongly with his ideas about the region's politics. Barenboim understands that music reveals the perfect balance "between intellect, emotion and temperament"; that the freedom and individuality inherent in music teaches us how we should view our relations with others. He also proposes the idea that music does not distinguish between race, sex, religion, or place of origin. Along with Edward Said, he hoped that these maxims would be realizable from the principles of diversity, culture and friendship that founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.

Although Barenboim may first come off as an ideologue, he approaches these political issues as someone familiar with human nature and morality. On several occasions, he has admonished the Palestinians to first understand the suffering of the Jewish people so that both Semitic peoples can begin to deal with each other. In a similar grain, he has also criticized the Israeli government for endangering the entire state with their oppressive attitude towards the Palestinians. On the subject of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he defends his views by writing, "I question, however, whether it is not even more naďve to rely on a military solution that has not worked for sixty years." Idealism it may be, but a deeper exposition reveals several poignant truths that we, as pragmatic creatures, almost fail to understand.

Ultimately, what Barenboim draws from a life in music is the importance of its interconnections that extend multiple parallels into how we coexist in our global community. Among other things, he also believes that "the world of sound is capable of elevating the individual from a limited preoccupation with his own existence to a universal perception of his place among fellow human beings." People are constantly trying to search for the meaning of life and a solution to many of our problems, and they almost always fail to understand the complex network of threads that hold everything together. Perhaps Barenboim hopes that in our quest to understand music's ineffable totality, what we likewise should discover in life is the idea that everything is indeed connected.

A beautifull work by a musical genius! It is more than worth reading this piece of analysis of music as part of our abiity to think!

This is a wonderful reading on how to understand the profound meaning of the sound world and how deeply related it is to all aspects of the human existence.( philosophy, sociology, politics, etc...)
thank you Daniel.

Dear prospective readers of `Music Quickens Time',
You are wandering around the myriad of news broadcast and web outlets, on every quarters of our cyberspace, in a quest of the latest literature release that will make your days for the foreseeable future and enrich your personal way of life. If you ended up here on that corner of the web social space it's because you are a cultivated individual, who loves music and values intelligent discourse about it in order to enrich your experience as a listener and/or a practitioner. Many essays were and are written about Music evidently. Another one? Well rather than music per se, this series of assays will give you the great opportunity to get connected with one of our brightest contemporary musician. As a matter of fact, Daniel Barenboim himself bluntly starts his book by asserting that `it is impossible to speak about music'! Indeed. In addition, is-it not somehow ironic that a musician, who argues that music is a powerful media to express ourselves, needs another mean, i.e. literature, to demonstrate his point? Would performing and composing music not be self-sufficient and should it no fulfill the need of a great performer like Daniel Barenboim? Well apparently not, and that's lucky for us. In this series of assays, Daniel Barenboim is like sitting on a divan so to speak, with the obvious need to disclose what is bothering him in our current world and what keeps him awake at night. We, the reader have the great privilege to be part of this analysis and be exposed to this meta-analysis of music and share his passion about it. This `Music Quicken Times' assay is not a treatise of western music. It is a convincing message that music is incredibly much more than a mere entertainment; this is a permanent teaching of philosophy, history and wisdom to name a few. Daniel Barenboim somehow rejuvenates the concept of `Honnęte Homme'. He convincingly conveys the message that being literate in music is much more than being a member of an elite culture: it teaches a universal language that deeply affects all human being. Not only Daniel Barenboim writes about it, he actually successfully implements this concept with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. It is reassuring to witness an intellectual like Daniel Barenboin being engaged, an `intellectuel engagé'. 'Music Quickens Time' is full of fascinating insights about composers and the fabric of music as well as very pertinent statements, e.g. "Individuality and collectivism need not be mutually exclusive; in fact, together they are capable of enhancing human existence". Listing to Bach Well-Tempered Clavier while reading `Music Quickens Time' assay will definitively enhance yours.