Music rules over both the relative and the absolute – the relativity of individual interpretation and the absoluteness of what constitutes an individual note or instrument. But music is also ethereal: it arises out of silence, works its magic, and then leaves the listener with silence again. Like a fervent religious conviction, music benevolently haunts us, getting “stuck in our heads” even when it’s not being played. Thus, in this mad world, music is arguably dissidents’ most permanent and resilient artistic source of truth and beauty. Books can be banned and burned, statues can be defaced and torn down, paintings locked up, beautiful architecture destroyed… but one can always hum a tune, strum a guitar, or even play a rickety piano. Even in the bleakest of moments, one can always hear a melody and all the feelings and memories that flow from it. That is why music is the noble art of dissidents — it gives our minds the power to generate an instant, on-demand copy of the will.
Paracelsus, “The Noble Art of Dissidents”
