Sensory Underload

It's almost impossible to really understand what life was like in the historical past. In the present we have access to virtually all media at anytime, from virtually any place. We can read, see, hear, or experience just about anything at anytime, thanks to the Internet, television, iPods, etc. Jet travel allows us to visit virtually any modern culture, or explore any remains of the past.

Just think how different this is from the life and times of Wolfgang Mozart. He is quoted as saying "I have only to hear an opera discussed, I have only to sit in a theater, hear the orchestra tuning their instruments - oh, I am quite beside myself at once." His genuine excitement with live music is palpable.

Obviously Mozart loved the opera, but in those days music simply wasn't heard except at rare professional performances. Nothing in the background over dinner, nothing at the local pub, nothing in the elevator (thank goodness!).

Except for brief interludes, scattered throughout space and time, you really didn't experience much culture in everyday life. As such, live music was cherished by the few who could experience it from time to time. As Professor Robert Greenberg says in his audio course The Operas of Mozart, "In Mozart's day, the opera house was a combination theater; Super Bowl half-time show; major league ballpark; rock concert; carnival midway; high-end fashion show; high-tech IMAX-style movie place; theme park; and special effects extravaganza: in sum, a total sensory-immersion facility."

Again, compare that to the world of today where almost no one actually goes to the opera. We suffer from sensory overload; the ancients suffered from sensory underload.

I suppose that's why art was so much more revered in times past; why the church invested its wealth adorning their interiors with brilliant works. St. Peters is absolutely amazing to experience today, but can we even begin to imagine how it overwhelmed the hearts of pilgrims of centuries past? Such rare beacons of beauty were genuinely perceived as heavenly, adding an allure to religion that almost can't be understood today.

As I listen to Professor Greenberg and his selections of Mozart's brilliant works, he points out something even more surprising: Mozart himself never heard his own music with the quality that we do today. Musicians simply weren't as good back then; their instruments hadn't been around that long, and lacked the centuries of trial and error that we benefit from today. The best musicians and ensembles of Mozart's time perhaps sounded something akin to an excellent high school ensemble today. Still, people were more fascinated, exhilarated and touched by his music than we are by the best of Super Bowls in the modern world.