509
sheer attitudinal differences that may be worlds apart. But physiologically, every
conjugate gaze (four systems employing both eyes simultaneously) shares some
structural similitudes in humans: eye and neck, the lateral function of the “paramedian pontine reticular formation“,
19
while the vertical is commandeered by the “rostral interstitial nucleus of medial longitudinal fasciculus and the interstitial nucleus
of Cajal“,
20
the complex morphological explanation for varieties of visual experience in humans.
By whatever means, our organism usually succeeds in situating its consciousness, projects, and mediates a vision (internal, external) that ripens and transmutes
through time. In music, the gaze is compounded by what has been characterized
as “paradox through the prism,” referring to Friedrich Schlegel’s “theory of form,”
in the context of Beethoven’s revolutionary 1802 piano sonata, “Tempest,” which,
according to Edgardo Salinas, produces an “absence” whose conspicuity we can
hear/imagine. And, hence, a gaze across the horizons of sound that is as critical to
understanding human nature as our reactions to any landscape scene, to the world
at large.
21
In exploring Beethoven’s music, Salinas suggests that the “Tempest” is
a “case study” in the understanding of how—in “the interface between form and
medium, deploying self-referential strategies”—Beethoven all but defined
“romantic subjectivities,” the “experience of immediacy,” and “the paradoxical
condition” that is “immanent to the modern self”
22
(Fig. 54.2).
54.2 The Proliferation of Gazes
The gaze of which we speak proliferates across boundaries, vulnerabilities, modes
of volition, gradients in color, topography and sensibility, spiritual practice, contrition, redemption, isolation, and relief. It is more than a gaze. It is vision of the soul
connecting with the world, words that mean nothing short of some extraordinary
instance of experience. Eye contact between two species; a grasp of something
19 See “Neural Control of Saccadic Eye Movements,” Neuroscience, 2
nd edition, NCBI Resources,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10992/ Accessed May 22, 2020.
20 Versino, M; Simonetti, F; Egitto, M G; Ceroni, M; Cosi, V; Versino, M; Ceroni, M; Cosi, V;
Beltrami, G (1999). “Lateral gaze synkinesis on downward saccade attempts with paramedian
thalamic and midbrain infarct”. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 67 (5): 696–
7. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.67.5.696. PMC 1736620. PMID 10577040; See also,
“Physiological Aspects of Communication Via Mutual Gaze,” by Allan Mazur, Eugene Rosa,
Mark Faupel, Joshua Heller, Russell Leen and Blake Thurman, American Journal of Sociology,
Vol. 86, No. 1, July, 1980, pp. 50–74, University of Chicago Press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2778851, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2778851, Accessed May 22, 2020.
21 See “The Form of Paradox as the Paradox of Form: Beethoven’s ‘Tempest,’ Schlegel’s Critique,
and the Production of Absence,” by Edgardo Salinas, Journal of Musicology, 33 (4): 2016, 483–
521,
https://doi.org/10.1525/jm.2016.33.4.483,
https://online.ucpress.edu/jm/article/33/4/483/63486/The-Form-of-Paradox-as-the-Paradox-of, Accessed May 22, 2020.
22 ibid., Edgardo Salinas, From Abstract.
54.2 The Proliferation of Gazes
sheer attitudinal differences that may be worlds apart. But physiologically, every
conjugate gaze (four systems employing both eyes simultaneously) shares some
structural similitudes in humans: eye and neck, the lateral function of the “paramedian pontine reticular formation“,
19
while the vertical is commandeered by the “rostral interstitial nucleus of medial longitudinal fasciculus and the interstitial nucleus
of Cajal“,
20
the complex morphological explanation for varieties of visual experience in humans.
By whatever means, our organism usually succeeds in situating its consciousness, projects, and mediates a vision (internal, external) that ripens and transmutes
through time. In music, the gaze is compounded by what has been characterized
as “paradox through the prism,” referring to Friedrich Schlegel’s “theory of form,”
in the context of Beethoven’s revolutionary 1802 piano sonata, “Tempest,” which,
according to Edgardo Salinas, produces an “absence” whose conspicuity we can
hear/imagine. And, hence, a gaze across the horizons of sound that is as critical to
understanding human nature as our reactions to any landscape scene, to the world
at large.
21
In exploring Beethoven’s music, Salinas suggests that the “Tempest” is
a “case study” in the understanding of how—in “the interface between form and
medium, deploying self-referential strategies”—Beethoven all but defined
“romantic subjectivities,” the “experience of immediacy,” and “the paradoxical
condition” that is “immanent to the modern self”
22
(Fig. 54.2).
54.2 The Proliferation of Gazes
The gaze of which we speak proliferates across boundaries, vulnerabilities, modes
of volition, gradients in color, topography and sensibility, spiritual practice, contrition, redemption, isolation, and relief. It is more than a gaze. It is vision of the soul
connecting with the world, words that mean nothing short of some extraordinary
instance of experience. Eye contact between two species; a grasp of something
19 See “Neural Control of Saccadic Eye Movements,” Neuroscience, 2
nd edition, NCBI Resources,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10992/ Accessed May 22, 2020.
20 Versino, M; Simonetti, F; Egitto, M G; Ceroni, M; Cosi, V; Versino, M; Ceroni, M; Cosi, V;
Beltrami, G (1999). “Lateral gaze synkinesis on downward saccade attempts with paramedian
thalamic and midbrain infarct”. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 67 (5): 696–
7. https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.67.5.696. PMC 1736620. PMID 10577040; See also,
“Physiological Aspects of Communication Via Mutual Gaze,” by Allan Mazur, Eugene Rosa,
Mark Faupel, Joshua Heller, Russell Leen and Blake Thurman, American Journal of Sociology,
Vol. 86, No. 1, July, 1980, pp. 50–74, University of Chicago Press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2778851, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2778851, Accessed May 22, 2020.
21 See “The Form of Paradox as the Paradox of Form: Beethoven’s ‘Tempest,’ Schlegel’s Critique,
and the Production of Absence,” by Edgardo Salinas, Journal of Musicology, 33 (4): 2016, 483–
521,
https://doi.org/10.1525/jm.2016.33.4.483,
https://online.ucpress.edu/jm/article/33/4/483/63486/The-Form-of-Paradox-as-the-Paradox-of, Accessed May 22, 2020.
22 ibid., Edgardo Salinas, From Abstract.
54.2 The Proliferation of Gazes