when sokurov speaks of music...

"yes it is true: it happens so
that sound is soul
and image is legs
image guides us.
image allows one to walk and sound allows one to fly.
i would say so
sound is more universal than image,
it is more human.
sound is free.
this freedom,
universality and humanity
make sound
such an extraordinary factor.
i think that
in this case we are all the heirs
of the huge emotional shock
that each of us experiences when intensely listening
to great music.
without great music there is no great literature
or great playwriting
if that harmony didn't exist.
because music music is simply
a harmony of sounds: ambient noise cannot be a harmony
music is a harmony.
it anticipates
what the rest of the arts created
absorbs it and expresses it.
architecture, painting, literature, playwriting and poetry
music absorbs it all,
comprehends and generalizes all to fit...
music is indeed
the grande dame of the arts...
music
is something
everyone comes to bow to
indeed."

subtitles from an interview with director alexander sokurov speaking about sound and music, as an extra on the dvd of his film elegy of a voyage. some of what he says about film and sound is quite wonderful, while some of what he says about contemporary art, and painting in general, are quite closed minded and difficult to take. he's a classicist surely, but it seems quite sad to exclude the entirety of modernism as having value... nonetheless, elegy is a beautiful poetic film (which would have been wholly impossible to make without reference to modern filmmaking...)