Music
‘Music is the universal language of mankind’, –
said once Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Music is not only a kind of art but also a kind of universal language. You can’t learn all the languages in the world, but you are able to understand music. Music helps when the words are not enough.
I don’t play any musical instruments, that’s why I take musicians as people sent down to Earth from Heaven. They have some special gift. My favourite musical instruments are the piano, the violin and the flute. I can’t say that I am
fond of some particular kind of music, I listen to different performers according to my mood. I have never listened much to classical music, it’s not fully my cup of tea. I like some composers, and my favourite one is Ferenc Liszt. His works are somehow different from the rest. I don’t like when a lot of musical instruments are involved into the process. But his masterpieces for the piano are unsurpassed.
I discovered the charm of Indian music a few years ago. I don’t mean the music coming from India. I listen to the traditional music of American and South American Indians. The flute is the main component here. Its pure sound brings serenity into my soul. I often turn it on in the background when do some creative work.
Pop music is difficult to listen to. The older I grow, the more I understand that art for the majority can’t be true art. Real art is for limited circles of people. Imagine a mineral water dispenser in the street, where all people drink from one glass. I feel the same about pop-music.
There can be naturally some good tracks within the limits of pop-music, but they are not numerous. Folk and native music can be different and surprisingly understandable. Just listen to traditional tea music from China, to the bagpipe of Scotland, to the sounds of the Pacific and you’ll see a wider world than you used to imagine.
As for the Russian performers, my absolutely favourite musician is B. Grebenshchikov. I clearly see the evolution of his creative activity in the course of time. One of his recent albums ‘Back to Arkhangelsk’ is a product of a very high quality. Grebenshchikov’s tunes are unique, his lyrics are close to my ideas. And together they make up a wonderful combination, so memorable and so distinctively bright against the gloomy background of pop-music.
And I would like to finish with the words of Henry David Thoreau: ‘When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest’.
And what about you? Do you feel the same?
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