Music runs deeper than emotions

Sessions caught my interest right from the very first page. I am not a musically inclined person, however, I do enjoy listening to music and can play piano a little. However...on to the essay...

Sessions said that "emotion" is to specific and individual to describe the essence of musical expression. He says music is deeper than emotions, it expresses the very energies of our "psychic life." He explains this what "creates a pattern which has an existence, laws, and human significance of its own." So I took this to mean that music expresses basically the world around us and inside us, think, ect.

He goes on to say it "reproduces for us the most intimate essence." This is the part that I really agreed with. There are certain songs that I can listen to that evoke feelings much deeper than just emotions.

But continuing on past the first page... I though it was interesting that the idea that music was a seperate art apart from dance or somthing else was a very recent idea. This is somthing I've never really thought of.

His idea that there are two parts in creating music interested me. The first was inspiration, which is the impulse which sets creation in movement. This may come in a flash, or may take form in an impulse towards a certain goal. The second part is conception. The interesting part about this for me was how he said, "compostition is a deed, an action, and a genuine action of any kind is, psychologically speaking, th simplest thing in the world." He says that since it is such a simple act, writing the peice of music is the simplest thing, which to me seems like the hardest.