Omaggio a Burri

I just read this in a CD-booklet, I assume it's from the composer, Salvatore Sciarrino, and I thought I would quickly type it here before returning the CD, since it's something I often think about:

The music of today barely touches the wider public. However, it is untrue that the public does not understand it. Maybe the problem is that people perceive immediately just how new it is, and that's why they reject it. If music today has a value, it is that of becoming closer to the thoughts and sounds of our age. But to follow music means to devote one's mind to it. In order to understand the language of music the idea of approaching it purely as a pastime is of no use whatsoever. If, therefore, we can learn how to concentrate on the transformation of sounds, of figures, then music will reveal its secrets to us.

We do not need to expend any great energy: only a moment is required of us. A moment in which it is necessary to empty the mind in order to fill it with something else, as when we observe a cloud scurrying overhead.