This evening I went to an excellent performance of Mahler’s Symphony #2, “Resurrection”. It was a red-letter evening: gorgeous, emotionally intense music, skillfully performed and incorporating deeply meaningful words. (I don’t believe in a supernatural resurrection awaiting any of us, but I do believe we can bloom again after life’s barren times.) I spend a lot of time thinking about the long road that lead to where we are: the slow story of evolution, the contingencies that led to our capacities for language and music, and the way our use of language and music has grown and changed over human history. Our awareness of our own mortality, which sets us apart from other living creatures, is one of the more difficult aspects of being thinking meat, but on the other hand it leads to some of the most creative and poignant acts we humans are capable of, including this particular symphony. As I sat there in the concert hall surrounded by the soaring music of the last movement, I had to marvel at being able to listen to several hundred musicians bringing to life something so beautiful that originated in the brain of someone now gone. It made me feel very lucky to be here.
No links today, no news stories. I’m still basking in the music.
