"Music is not just made up of notes. A musical form is above all an obvious fact, a testimony—it is not a state of mind to be perceived, nor a pattern to be analyzed, nor even a fixed system of communication through which people exchange sounds and meanings just as they exchange goods, based on a conventional economic system. This means that as listeners, we must first ask ourselves why and how a musical work exists, rather than simply rushing to judge whether it is good or bad, beautiful or ugly. Categorical judgments such as good or bad, beautiful or ugly—typical of rationalist thinking in tonal aesthetics—no longer allow us to understand why and how a composer today works on audible forms and musical action..."
Luciano Berio, Forme (1960)
in: Ecrits sur la Musique, édition établie par Angela Ida de Benedictis, Cité de la Musique - Philharmonie de Paris, 2025, p. 59-60.
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