Monday, April 20, 2020

Musicians as Citizens of an Unknown Homeland

Marcel Proust, The Prisoner and the Fugitive, Penguin, page 235-236 quoted in Jon Elster, Reason and Rationality, page 18

"Each great artist seems to be the citizen of an unknown homeland which he has forgotten[...] It is not that musicians can remember this lost homeland, but each always remains unconsciously in tune with it; he is overcome with joy when he sings the songs of his country, he may sometimes betray it for the sake of glory, but when he seeks glory in this way he moves further away from it, and only finds it when he turns his back on it."

In this quote by Proust on the plight of the musician/artist, our attention is drawn to the ideas of an "unknown homeland," attunement to a place of belonging and finally glory. The joy of singing the songs of one's country feeds upon a sense of intuitive, un-reflective and visceral sense of belonging to common experiences and relations. 

The relation between that joy and glory, the other key concept in the quote, is complicated. At first, they do not seem to easily go together. The lure of glory may tempt the musician away from his/her roots which he/she may come to see too provincial and rustic. However, this temptation does not bear fruit, Proust tells us. Glory is gained instead when we express, not run away from, our longing for roots through melodies and words. Such is the lovely 'pragmatic incoherence'(to use a term of Jon Elster) of belonging somewhere deep down to a homeland, forgotten in the midst of a mobile life, but forever sought through melodies.

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