...of musical thought

‘Well then, in your opinion, why is my dog so attached to your friend?’ he asked Ivan Sabakov.
Ivan replied: ‘Bari is an intelligent dog. An animal is often more sensitive than a human being. Besides, André is an artist, that is to say, a human being who is much closer to the true nature of things than the ordinary run of men. And don’t forget that at the moment he is working. Certainly he must be giving off a lot of vibrations. Musical thought carries a long way, even when it is unformulated, embryonic. In this state, something physical must already enter into its constitution, something analogous to and parallel with the laws of interference which govern the speed of the propagation of light, the vibrations of the ether and all those waves of motion and heat, of which the most elementary is sound. A dog’s hearing is very acute. It’s one of his most highly developed senses. Perhaps Bari can already hear the music, or rather, the elementary rhythms that are condensing around this human spirit in gestation, the phrases and triplets which accumulate above this head in labour, the tonalities and modalities which crowd in and jostle one another in an effort to reach Lamont’s eardrum and became rejuvenated. Certain rhythms are very ancient. Tenaries, for instance, date back to the beginning of the world. They are eternal. They must make the air vibrate, just as prayers do as they pass over. I noticed that Bari often pricks up his ears, as if he could hear something passing that we don not perceive. Probably he loves music.’

[Dan Yack, Cendras, B.]