Today's Diane Rehm guest [no, I do not plan to share this with you daily] was Daniel Barenboim, pianist and conductor, and author of the new book Music Quickens Time. I would not have deliberately turned to this book or this subject, but it reminded me of the experience of satisfaction that is one of the nicest parts of being a librarian, of introducing someone to a book and having it click for them. It appears that Barenboim is a very thoughtful man. One insight--music is special because it has only a momentary existence.There is silence, then a physical production of a sound, which only lasts until it fades away--death-life-death. The skill of the musician and the noticing of the listener come together to share, and there is only a moment until the sound is gone. It itself has no continuing life, only the response it left in the listener. And an interesting sidelight--he said that the English language happens to have/is lucky to have two words--to "hear" and to "listen", while German only has two forms of the same word, and cannot so richly explain the difference.