What was startlingly new was the thought that the mind works not like a recording camera, not like a logical machine, but like an artist. It picks and discards in accord with its interests. But this was only one of the ideas that were to be cardinal in Barzun’s thought.

Murray, Michael (2011-04-06). Jacques Barzun: Portrait of a Mind (Kindle Locations 1496-1498). Kindle Edition. Again: “The common definition of music which distinguishes it as a ‘time’ art from such ‘space arts’ as painting is . . . a very rough notion. It is true that music unrolls as time passes, and vanishes with the instant; this is what makes it hard to discuss. But it would be equally true to say that a piece of music must be perceived, just like a painting, instantaneously in all its parts. Short of this the significant relations of beginning, middle, and end are lost.” In point of fact, Barzun continues, “no painting other than a very small one can be taken in at one glance. Yet unless we strive in both arts for that comparative, simultaneous, single perception, we run the risk of misunderstanding.”

Murray, Michael (2011-04-06). Jacques Barzun: Portrait of a Mind (Kindle Locations 3566-3571). Kindle Edition.

And again: “When we speak of the healthful discipline of strict form . . . we think of the desirable pressure which makes the artist squeeze all the significance out of his ideas. Rime, for example, compels the fledgling poet to try a dozen permutations instead of being satisfied with his first line, and leads him to pack his couplets with sense while enhancing their felicity and force. But this only proves that a set form makes it easier, not harder, to achieve merit.”

Murray, Michael (2011-04-06). Jacques Barzun: Portrait of a Mind (Kindle Locations 3572-3575). Kindle Edition.