Music, a philosophical consideration

We have been discussing in our 'Teaching and learning basics' course an interesting idea regarding the 'life' of music. Music would seem to be unique among the arts, and maybe only allied to drama in this respect, that the notes on the page are 'dead' and it is only when we play them that they come 'alive'. Some of the more youthful members of our group were not quite ready to accept this concept, but I suggested that the next logical step would be to consider that not only do the notes come 'alive' but also something of the composer, his essence, spirit, also lives on as we play his music. A couple of days later I was playing a piano duet with my teacher (Brahms own arrangement of his first string quartet!), and was discussing this idea. I realised that to continue along the line of this argument would mean that not only is the composer alive when we play his music, but that we should play the music as if he was present in the room. The effect was immediatly noticeable, we both agreed that we played more musically, and with much more attention to detail. A very useful teaching tool, if nothing else!