[Avodah] Seeing the Alps

[Daniel Israel]

kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
> But ditto in the opposite direction as well. Many years ago, we had a
> thread --- wow, I just went to look it up. It was in 1999, Avodah
> volume 3, approx. issues 143-154, under subjects like "Wagner's
> Music" and "Is all music value-neutral?" Back then I felt, and I
> still feel today, that while wordless music can give a person a very
> basic emotional feeling such as calmness or frenzy, I do not see how
> it can bring one to a higher-lever emotion such as love or hate, and
> even more so, I do not see how wordless music can inspire one to
> something like deveykus to Hashem. --- Unless, of course, one has
> reason to associate that particular niggun with some particular
> lyrics, in which case it is not really a wordless niggun.

I don't remember that discussion.  So let me just say, listening to some 
of my favorite orchestral music can inspire me (in terms of the 
emotional effect) exactly the same way as seeing the Alps.  (Well, I 
haven't seen the Alps, except maybe from an airplane window, but 
substitute some other relevant natural wonder.)

I'm not sure if that is consistent or inconsistent with what you write 
above.

-- 
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu