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UNIV 2005
Kultur gestalten: die Sprache der Musik

As Rilke used to say, "Music is something which transports, consoles and helps." Stupor, joy, enthusiasm and indescribable emotions accompany whoever listens to Walk of Life, Mozart's Requiem or the flute theme of Mission. Music, according to Tolkein makes "thought roam the regions where delight and pain are one and the same thing and tears are the wine of beatitude." Frodo's emotions and those of millions of readers and spectators follow the notes and voice of Enya as she sings May it Be in the first film of the trilogy.




Music has always fascinated man, probably because music contains an impetuous movement which makes it transcend reality and the normal course of life. "Music is interrupted silence", says George Steiner. Every authentic art interpretes reality going beyond that which the senses perceive and trying to draw them closer to mystery. The essence of art is situated in the profundity of man, where the aspiration to give meaning to life is accompanied by a fleeting intuition of beauty and of the mysterious unity of things. The course of the normal life of the youth develops constantly accompanied by music. Music is listened to on the road and in the car, we get together for music and speak about music

(often times exchanging MP3 found anywhere without any concern about the debate on its legality), and there is a tendency to imitate the lifestyles that is perceived from MTV... This attitude frequently conceals the desire to escape from an everyday reality which is considered unbearable. Expressing it in the words of Susanna Tamaro, "Rather than face emptiness, I run. Rather than confront silence, I jump." Stopping to think is frightening in a world where it seems that there is no air to breathe. In actual fact, many music stars have failed tragically in their personal search for meaning in life. Kurt Cobain, commits suicide at the peak of a brilliant career. The singer of I want to break free appears not to have attained the target and nobody envies the vicissitudes of Michael Jackson's life.

Reflecting on the language of music also implies deciding whether to accept without further consideration the lifestyle associated with it as proposed and sold by the musical industry. Is it necessary to be at the mercy of commercialization and to accept a priori the latest (summer) songs so as not to be old-fashioned or out of date? Do I approve of the environment of discoteques without any critical consideration? Is the happiness each one dreams of and foresees listening to his/her famous singer here?

We dream our dreams alone with no resistance, faded like stars we wished to be, sings Oasis. "I do not know who has placed me in the world, neither do I know what the world is nor what I am. I am surrounded by immense space and I find myself imprisoned in a corner of this vast extension, without knowing why." The language of music probably best expresses the existential condition of man thus defined by Pascal. Maybe this could be the starting point for critically examining the reality which surrounds us and which is not exhausted in the visible or the audible.

The culture of a people — says T.S. Eliot — "is manifested in art, social system, lifestyle, customs and religion." During these years UNIV proposes to university students an interdisciplinary research on today's culture of which music is an important part: art, amusement and recreation, research, business, images, right of authorship, fashion, harmony, industry, Napster, language, rhythm, folklore... Forty years ago, Vatican Council II taught that "This world needs beauty so as not to fall into desperation."

Echoing these words, John Paul II reminded the artists that each person "has been entrusted with the task of being the author of his own life: in a certain sense, each one ought to make his life a work of art, a masterpiece." Not everyone will be a musician, singer or poet but every person seeks a response to his/her intimate desire for happiness and continues searching untiringly when he/she has to recognise that: I still have not found what I'm looking for.

How many roads must a man walk before you can call him a man? In Bologna in 1997, Bob Dylan sang his famous questions directing himself to the Pope who responded, smiling, to the thousands of young people present: "A representative of yours has said in your name that the answer to the questions of your life is blowing in the wind. It is true! Not in the wind that sweeps everything down the precipice of nothingness but in the wind which is the breath and the voice of the Holy Spirit, a voice which calls and says come!”.