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This summer I’m going to give a class in mushroom
identification at the New School for Social Research.
Actually, it’s five field trips, not really a class
at all. However, when I proposed it to Dean Clara
Mayer, though she was delighted with the idea, she
said, “I’ll have to let you know later whether or not
we’ll give it.” So she spoke to the president who
couldn’t see why there should be a class in mushrooms
at the New School. Next she spoke to Professor MacIvor
who lives in Piermont. She said, “What do you think
about our having a mushroom class at the New School?”
He said, “Fine idea. Nothing more than mushroom
identification develops the powers of observation.”
This remark was relayed both to the president and to
me. It served to get the class into the catalogue and
to verbalize for me my present attitude towards
music: it isn’t useful, music isn’t, unless it
develops our powers of audition. But most musicians
can’t hear a single sound, they listen only to the
relationship between two or more sounds. Music for
them has nothing to do with their powers of audition,
but only to do with their powers of observing
relationships. In order to do this, they have to
ignore all the crying babies, fire engines, telephone
bells, coughs, that happen to occur during their
auditions. Actually, if you run into people who are
really interested in hearing sounds, you’re apt to
find them fascinated by the quiet ones. “Did you hear
that?” they will say. |