Cheryl’s Reviews > Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More > Status Update

Most of us spend most of our moral lives in the middle -- sitting on a fence much broader then the gardens on either side. Our days are filled with small acts of cowardice and laziness alternating randomly with small acts of generosity and kindness.

Consider, say, the slow movement of Schubert's B flat Sonata. If you raise your hands to the keyboard in a swift, jerky movement, you've ruined the music before it begins. The few seconds before the first hammer touches the first string are the moments of silence out of which music is born, the breath before the word is spoken.