Balzac's `Gambara': Music Is a Science and an Ar

Balzac considered music the greatest of the arts because it speaks directly to the soul, fires sensations and galvanizes ideas. He saw it as both a science and an art in that it obeys the laws of physics and mathematics and it also nourishes the imagination, intensifies fleeting perceptions, and stimulates benumbed or heretofore forgotten memories. The article traces the manner in which Music is a science and an art in terms of Gambara, the composer/musician par excellence. (BLK)