Transcending the Transcendent
Instructions: Press Play, then read.
I am sitting here in my office listening to Trio Sonatas from Handel and Corelli and looking out from the top of the hill in Fredericton at, well the entire city of Fredericton. There is something about this style and era of music which allows me to transcend the moment. It brings a smile and certain lightness which I can find in few other places. It brings a certain significance to the silence of the trees swaying outside and the bug-like cars and people moving four stories below. It is transcendence, but one that allows a closeness to the mundane that we usually shield ourselves from. It offers a perspective different from that within my mind. No doubt it is thoughtfully contemplative and reflective, like almost everything else I do as a philosophy student, but it is also profoundly peaceful. It delves to the heart of what really matters, and interestingly though unsurprisingly it brings me to the wind, the trees, the cars and the people; it brings me to peace.
I agree completely. I believe that anyone who scorns so-called ‘classical’ music is seriously missing out. If you have given it a serious chance and then come to the conclusion that it is not for you, then fine. This type of music has lost none of its poignancy over the centuries. It does something for me that rock, or jazz or rap simply doesn’t.
It is a shame that CBC is crippling its programming by changing Radio 2 so drastically. Is there any recent news on that?