“Music is what man owes to time” (85).
“It is possible that listening to music consists less in distracting be mind from ‘acoustic suffering’ than in struggling to reestablish animal alert. What characterizes harmony is that it resuscitates the acoustic curiosity that is lost as soon as articulated and semantic language spreads within us” (7-8).
“Music is like panicked smiles” (32).
“Sounds also form chains as days pass. We are also the object of an ‘acoustic narration’ that in our language has not been given a name, like ‘dreams.’ I will here name them surging hums. Hums surging unexpectedly when we walk, surging suddenly, according to the rhythm of our gait” (33).
–Â Pascal Quignard, The Hatred Of Music (2016)