The Fredösphere

Go to this article from the Hudson Review and you will find a quote from Hannah Arendt:

It is in [the nature of thought] to undo, unfreeze as it were, what language, the medium of thinking, has frozen into thought—words (concepts, sentences, definitions, doctrines), whose “weakness” and inflexibility Plato denounces so splendidly. . . . The consequence of this peculiarity is that thinking inevitably has a destructive, undermining effect on all established criteria, values, measurements for good and evil, in short on those customs and rules of conduct we treat of in morals and ethics.

I am not even close to endorsing all the implications (or even claiming a full understanding) of what Arendt is saying.  I will say I was arrested by this idea that language, as the medium of thought, can freeze thought, and thought can unfreeze language.  It reminds me of my increasing reluctance to put my musical ideas into Finale, my music notation software.

I find Finale has a freezing action upon my music.  Once my notes are in the computer, it becomes a big chore (and an emotional struggle) to change them.

I also find that paper notation has the same effect, albeit much less.  Paper is a much more flexible medium.  When I want to defer decisions about precise notes, a squiggle or some other on-the-fly symbol can serve as a marker for my thoughts in their semi-formed state.  Furthermore, I can cross out unwanted notes, yet leave them visible as a record of what I have done.

Ideally, a composer hears all notes in all parts in his head.  The act of committing those notes to paper then is one of transcription, not composition.  Mozart and Britten could do it; some of the rest of us are not quite there yet. 

The composer of the future will have a MIDI port mounted in his forehead, so this will not be an issue.