ABSTRACT
Music seems in some ways to be more separable from ordinary life than any of the other arts. There is nothing like the constructions of music in real life or in nature. It appears to be entirely a human artifact. The fact that expert musicians occasionally disagree even about whether a particular piece of music by Schubert is light-hearted or tender does not disprove the very general truth. The only way of knowing fully this musical meaning, for which there are no words, is to live along with and in the music. The root connections between music and life, as well as the differences between feelings of music and feelings in life, were long ago picturesquely described by Anstruther Thompson, quoted by Vernon Lee in her book Music and its Lovers. The artist's acceptance and selective use of it transforms the perspective of life as through strange lens. The visual image ceases to be merely schematic and moves towards completeness.
