“The musical emotion springs precisely from the fact that at each moment the composer withholds or adds more or less than the listener anticipates on the basis of a pattern that he thinks he can guess, but that he is incapable of wholly divining. If the composer withholds more than we anticipate, we experience a delicious falling sensation; we feel we have been torn from a stable point on the musical ladder and thrust into the void. When the composer withholds less, the opposite occurs: he forces us to perform gymnastic exercises more skillful than our own.”
Quote by Claude Levi-Strauss
Author
Claude Levi-Strauss
Claude Levi-Strauss was a French anthropologist known for his structuralist theories and his analyses of myths, kinship, and human culture. His work has had a profound impact on post-structuralism and semiotics. more
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