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Quote by Joe Heap

“There is something expansive, even a little obsessive, about his mind. It’s full of curious and relics, monographs on music and reams of sheet music. She feels as though she is wandering around a charming if rather cramped second-hand bookshop. She wants to stay there, browsing through it all, for as long as possible.”

Quote by Joe Heap

Work

When the Music Stops

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Joe Heap

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“Previous research showed that loud music in a restaurant caused people to consume more alcohol and soda, while slow music lead to customers ordering more and staying longer. Dr. Charles Spence, professor at Oxford University, also found that certain types of music will bring out certain flavors in the food. For example, the experience of sweetness or bitterness in the food could be increased or decreased by simply changing the background music. Sweet sounds would increase the experience of a food’s sweetness, while “bitter” sounds would increase the bitterness rating.”

“There is a great divide between good playing and great playing. The worst musicians are unaware that this distance exists, and they fumble their way through magnificent literature, oblivious. Most players sense this divide, however, and they know which side of it they are on. A few of these determine to struggle their whole musical lives to reach the side of greatness by practicing and working harder and harder. They end up impressing their friends and colleagues with their machine-like mastery of difficult pieces. But they know that they are not great. They know it because for a few moments, moments that they will remember and cling to for the rest of their lives, they have actually crossed that divide. For a shining moment they understood, and they wept and played and believed in their greatness. But they were cast out again, and no amount of struggling would bring them back across. No one crosses the divide by struggling, and no one passes through it by practice. There is only one bridge across. It is the bridge of abandonment, and it is built of helplessness, and of courage. Great playing is given over to the music utterly and completely. It is abandoned and willing. It is calm and it is shrieking. It is weeping and laughter, and more than anything else, it is love.”