Today’s Diane Rehm guest [no, I do not plan to share this with you daily] was Daniel Barenboim, pianist and conductor, and author of the new book Music Quickens Time. I would not have deliberately turned to this book or this subject, but it reminded me of the experience of satisfaction that is one of the nicest parts of being a librarian, of introducing someone to a book and having it click for them.

It appears that Barenboim is a very thoughtful man. One insight–music is special because it has only a momentary existence.There is silence, then a physical production of a sound, which only lasts until it fades away–death-life-death. The skill of the musician and the noticing of the listener come together to share, and there is only a moment until the sound is gone. It itself has no continuing life, only the response it left in the listener.

And an interesting sidelight–he said that the English language happens to have/is lucky to have two words–to “hear” and to “listen”, while German only has two forms of the same word, and cannot so richly explain the difference.

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