Post on Le Guin

Madame De Stael brought up an interesting point during the discussion, saying that “the kind of pleasure produced by an animated conversation does not precisely consist in the subject of that conversation.” The musicians were friends, family, and of varying degrees of musical ability, and the music, a Haydn sonata in this case, just seemed to happen. The music itself seems to become part of the conversation between friends and acquaintances, this is clear, but the thing I wonder is how the musicians stop and become part of the verbal conversation. I personally like to finish a piece of music when I start it, but maybe that is one of the differences in function/taste/understanding/perspective à propos de music now and then. The context of playing the music is covered too, which is where I take issue. I gleaned from the article that completeness and virtuosity are not integral to the music, as is the fact that the music made and discussed. The enjoyment of the piece of music, or the conversation, didn’t hinge on the music being made well or continuously. Along those same lines, I really enjoyed the interplay and analogy of music and conversation, especially the use of the terms entretien and conversation. Being a French speaker and amateur linguist (as were the characters in the reading, I think), I enjoy finding shades of meaning between words, and they explain this distinction very well. Music in the time period shown seems to make the metaphor about conversation less of a literary/conversational device and more of an inextricable fact: they are the same. Is this what the characters are trying to evoke? Is the metaphor useless as such?