How Art “Speaks” to Us

The greatest pieces of music, literature, and art are the ones that understand what it means to exist; to be a human in a seemingly limitless universe. In my opinion, some prime examples of works that accomplish this are “Notes from the Underground” by Dostoevsky and various portraits by Vermeer. Another paragon of such a piece is Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3, Op. 69, in A Major. I was recently fortunate enough to attend a live performance of this masterpiece, which prompted these reflections.

In the case of Mozart, I am often left feeling that his music is really, truly good, in that there is a beautiful and overwhelming absence and pardoning of all evil. We use the word casually, but in my mind, there is hardly a higher compliment than something being good, when sincerely meant.

However, the word that came to mind when listening to the Beethoven cello sonata was “true”. Yes, there was goodness and beauty and greatness, but it sounded as though it were also aquatinted with sorrow and pain and humankind — not a still and perfect Eden. It was true because it told what it was to be a human and live a life in our world.

When you hear such pieces, you feel what it is to be a speck on the Earth gazing up at the stars strewn richly across an endless night, all the while surrounded by death and life, suffering and mirth; you know what it is to love others and be loved by others and to lie alone with lonely thoughts on a silent winter morning; what it is to long for something so much greater than life can offer, and at the same time to know you could die content at that moment because you’ve heard such music, and in that music you’ve already lived an entire lifetime.

Truly great art not only possesses beauty and goodness dispossessed of meaning, but extends beyond itself — it is more than just words or notes or strokes of a brush. The greatest of artworks are alive and communicate with us; they understand us and we understand them.

Header Image: “Evening Lanscape with Two Men”, Casper David Friedrich, https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcommons.wikimedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFile%3ACaspar_David_Friedrich_-_Evening_Landscape_with_Two_Men_-_WGA8284.jpg&psig=AOvVaw18c_Xh8jiUIZ7qtEhWODJ2&ust=1722407937300000&source=images&cd=vfe&opi=89978449&ved=0CBQQjhxqFwoTCOD-j9yTzocDFQAAAAAdAAAAABAK