And into that gate they shall enter, and in that house they shall dwell, where there shall be no cloud nor sun, no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light, no noise nor silence, but one equal music, no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession, no foes nor friends but one equal communion and identity, no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity.
-Sermon, John Donne, 1572-1631

This evening, while studying, I was reminded how much I love Schubert's Trout Quintet. Pretentious, moi? That'll be a hell, yeah.




Vikram Seth's An Equal Music has got to be one of the best books written about music. Not that I have much experience in the area - and I am not particularly musical, beyond the obligatory childhood piano lessons and the occasional foray into choral music. Nevertheless, when I read An Equal Music (in Ghana, last summer), I was utterly absorbed. I do not have a very wide knowledge of classical music but the descriptions of the Maggiore String Quartet and the running theme of love-lost - and love-found and love-lost again - really drew me in. The Trout is one of the central compositions mentioned in the book and it was only after I returned home that I listened to it for the first time. It might be stretching it to say that that single book made me appreciate classical music all the more but, then again, perhaps it is not so far from the truth (even if it is a too-broad truth).





It is the sort of book that makes me wish I had talent enough to play the piano if not well, at least better. I suppose I'd like to be proficient with any musical instrument, really. Yes, even the triangle. I could cope with that. It is also the sort of book that makes me wish I could talk about classical music with some kind of intelligence that passes beyond "I like it" or "I want to hear that again". I don't suppose that is such a bad thing though; to know what you like even if you cannot identify the technical skill or merit involved in composing or playing such music. I doubt that I, for one, will ever really grow much beyond the six-year old girl who asked her father to play that music from Charlie Brown when Linus lost his blanket.




"That music?" The second movement of Beethoven's Sonata Pathétique.