A useless insight

I want to discuss the term “insightful.” It's a word which is thrown around the halls of music with some frequency.

“The performance was insightful,” “Beethoven's music is insightful,” etc. We've all heard comments along those lines but what does it mean and who cares?

We will start with a definition of insightful: Having or showing an accurate and deep understanding; perceptive.

What does this deep understanding do for us, though? It needs to lead us somewhere if it is to be of any value.

Let's say we have a deep understanding of Shostakovich and that we have responded to the insights in his music. Now what?

An insight is useless unless it is applied. We can gather insights like an obsessive philatelist but until they are applied to our existence they are “only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”

It has been said that faith without works is dead. Likewise an insight without application is deceased.

With music the application of an insight is a nebulous affair because often times it’s not a concrete idea such as we might find in a poem or novel. Music does provide insight nonetheless.

Sergiu Celibidache said that the ultimate destination of any artistic endeavor is freedom. An insightful piece of music can expose part of the self-imposed cage in which we often exist and bring us just a bit closer to the freedom we desire.

It is easy to lose sight of this “ultimate destination”. We can become entangled in the correctness of a performance — the tempo, the phrasing, the dynamic contrasts.

We can then coronate a performance as insightful, usually when it lines up with our pre existing understanding of the piece. However, without the nudge toward freedom — who cares?