Great truths of physical energy plus imaginative vision plus human consolation are experienced through great music. Here is the highest function of music-making. In the words of…Abraham Joshua Heschel: “Listening to great music is a shattering experience, throwing the soul into an encounter with an aspect of reality to which the mind can never relate itself adequately. …I spend my life working with thoughts.

And one problem that gives me no rest is: Do these thoughts ever rise to the heights reached by authentic music?”

from The Anatomy of Melody: Exploring the Single Line of Song