[Benedict Broere]

Fair-gwen,

Last night I saw and heard on tv Mahler played by the Concertgebouw-orchestra with the conductor Bernard Haitink. It was magic.
And why?

It seems we humans are able to invent, express and recognise-experience certain harmonies, a cascade of wonderful sounds, that also bare deep emotions, that tell you the spirit of a time, the lifes of millions of people, and that is able to - above all that - touch on eternal values, toch on the essence of being.

We also know that there's a lot of technique under or beneath or behind these wondersounds. But going into that - wood, brass, the score, the notes, the acoustics, consonants, dissonants, etcetera - immediately the magic is broken.

For instance a sunset has sometimes the same kind of wonder. But scientists can tell you all about the breaking and dispersing of the light, the effect of certain molecules in the air, how this light gets into your eyes, how our brain constructs an image, and so on. But when listening to that, the magic fades away.

The reality itself has it's wonder, even in everydaylife. Science is finding out how it's constructed. Layers upon layers of complexity, built on underlying 'alphabets'/'themes', and laws and constants. And to me built on finally a very essential order or theme I call aos.

Understanding it's explanation needs a lot of delving into the underlying technique, the words with wich I try to make it plausible. And it also needs I think a sensitivity for reality as being a kind of music, sense the broader patterns, sense the bigger picture.

But yes, also to me the essence of life is something hard to touch on, getting into the field of wonder, getting into the unspeakable, unreasonable, no words.