Look, we´ll take today poor Descartes´ much maligned COGITO. Now we´ll change its verb into the passive voice – from ” Cogito ergo sum” we´ll have
“Cogitor ergo sum ” = ” I exist because I am thought” or ” The only reason why I exist is that I am an object of somebody´s thinking! ” , – a not undodgy sentence, sadly not unknown in psychiatric institutions. Now suppose I substitute “Audio” ( ” I hear” ) in a similar sentence – ” Audio ergo sum” ( ” I am heard therefore I exist” ) and I then change it into its passive voice, thus getting: ” Audior ergo sum ” ( ” I am heard therefore I exist” ) . If the subject meant here is the musical work, then I´ll get an equally dodgy sentence : ” Audior ergo sum” = ” I, a piece of musical composition , am heard, therefore I exist” . Or: ” The reason why I exist is because i am being heard ( played, observed, listened to, recorded, performed orchestrally, applauded, booed off the stage and out the door , etc. etc. ” ) . This dodgy, toxic assumption is too often behind today´s composer, his reception, her perception and self-perception. ” Oh, well, because I am performed, I am! ” This has several corollaries, all equally poison: ” I am bloody good because I am ( being ) performed!” or , ahem : ” This work is no good because it´s not being performed… ” But this way lies madness. Beware The Musical COGITO. In all its forms.