Music as Social Life: The Politics of Participation

“Today I remembered this lovely quote from Thomas Turino's book, Music as Social Life: "For me, good music making or dancing is a realization of ideal— Possible— human relationships where the identification with others is so direct and so intense that we feel, for those best moments, as if our selves had merged. It is the sounds we are making, our art,that continually let us know that we have done so or that we are failing to achieve this ideal Being in seamless synchrony with others feels wonderful, and it is one of the main experiences that attracts me to musical performance again and again."”