The Act of Willing

Maestro Daniel Barenboim in his masterclass of Beethoven told his students, ‘believe that you can do a crescendo on one note.’ The audience observed ‘physically it’s not possible but it sure sounded like it happened!’.

Explaining the illusion of sound, he told a story when at the age of 14 he was taken to play for the great Vladimir Horowitz. At the end of his play Horowitz said something he had never forgotten - ‘you know, you must always have the Will’.

In other words you must ‘imagine’ the piano is doing the crescendo and when you play the next note, that note has to be the result of your imaginary crescendo. You must have the Will to do the crescendo and if you have the Will, you will be able to bring all the knowledge you have about the laws of the sound to create the illusion. The technical knowledge of the sound can be taught but whether one can transcend the level of physics and enter into a burning intensity for the crescendo is up to one’s own Will. This ‘act of willing’ (Assagioli, 1984) is in closest relation to the Self and the most direct expression of the Self.