
Beginners Ear
A musical journey inward
by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim
As a music critic writing for The New York Times I’ve attended a lot of concerts. Sometimes 100 a year, spanning a dazzling variety of styles and periods, performers and venues. Most of the time, my attention was focused on the musicians and what and how they were playing. That was my job, after all.
But in December 2018, I attended a concert that directed my focus inward, onto the process of listening itself. The event, at Princeton University, invited audience members to take part in a short guided meditation practice at the beginning of the recital. When the music began, it unfolded inside a space of such concentrated silence that the sounds rang out in brilliant clarity. I remember the uncanny feeling that the music was coming from inside of me, that the barrier between me and not-me had dissolved — advanced stuff to a novice meditator like me.