Luke Jeffery - Music: That Which Points to the Wholly Other (Van Der Leeuw)

Music is one of the most interesting arts and forever holds a special place in the heart of man. No matter what culture you come from, music is something that connects the human heart to something beyond it. Van Der Leeuw remarks, "No art points beyond itself more decidedly than does music" (226). Music has a unique ability to take one into that which is beyond themselves. It is like an elevator that brings one to the top floor of the building, where they receive a completely different perspective than when they were once on the bottom floor. "Music represents the great struggle of reaching the wholly other, which it can never express" (227). Though it ascends to the top of the building, it knows that it cannot stay there, in fact it must not because so much is to be done on the bottom floor. This well reflects how music can release us from our anxieties, fears, and negative emotions by giving us perspective on life, rejuvenating us, and releasing us back into the world. And it only has this power through its connection to that which is beyond us, that which is wholly other.