before and after are the ugly faces of the here and now

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write,
but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. —Alvin Toffler

listening to the Anima Eterna Brugge Orchestra performing Beethoven’s 5th symphony and watching
them play together, to a silent and attentive audience, a thought occured. since music is invisible,
every single person in the audience was experiencing his/her very own “piece”, call it imagination,
visuals, ideas. even stronger so than looking at a visual work of art, which is defining or stimulating
ways of possible perception much more. painting the image in one’s own head instructed by beethoven,
in this case. in this way, the art of music cannot fade away or date out, since the image is painted
freshly again, every time it is being played or performed. no matter whether this is live or from a CD.
and for the time being, it belongs to everyone present, unprejudicedly equal.
music might be the better artist, I thought, because its audible invisibility makes it such a democratic
medium. like opening a museum in one’s mind, a museum that is able to changes form, content and
color every second. it therefore is truly free (free as in indpendent) and is only there for the sake of
inspiration, it seemed to me. the 5th symphony didn’t ask for my appreciation, opinion, critic or praise.
neither did beethoven. it simply appeared, humbly poured itself over us, the audience, and humbly
disappeared again after 30 minutes. at the same time, the musicians (a symphony orchestra with around
40 musicians) were painting – together. like constructing a building, cooking a delicious meal or
performing a magic trick, everyone knew his role, listened carefully and contributed what they had
trained and studied and learnt in order to create the piece. making (visual art) art, again, often feels like
being a musicianin an orchestra, with the orchestra being the universe and your fellow musicians being
art history, in that image. then, it is about contributing the harmony you think is missing or needed and
about carefully listening to what you cannot see.