Musical Musings

As I sat with my roommate's cat Freddie tonight listening to George Frideric Handel, I began to wonder whether Freddie also got anything out of Handel's moving artistic work. Surely, if new parents habitually play classical music to stimulate their infants' minds, the melodic power of this genre, in particular, has something to offer the perceptive non-human as well. If nothing else, the novelty of hearing music - as opposed to nothing - means that ex-stray Freddie probably enjoys it to some degree.

Does he enjoy music as much as or more than me? I can't see that. As a cat, he can never really know what truly goes into making it. Based on Marx's labour theory of value, the value of an object - in this case, a beautiful piece of music - consists of the sheer amount of labour-power that goes into producing it. We all get the use-value (the irresistible journey of emotional states that a powerful piece of music can take you on), but from a Marxist perspective, the value of Handel's music is the amount of work that went into creation.

Apparently crime rates in public places go down when they play classical music on loudspeakers. There must be some significance to that.