"Of all the arts, music is really the most abstract"

Leo Ornstein's assertion that "Of all the arts, music is truly the most abstract" provides an extensive perspective on the nature of music compared to other art forms. To interpret this, we must consider the ideas of abstraction and tangibility within the arts.

Visual arts, like painting and sculpture, often have physical types that represent or stimulate particular ideas, emotions, or objects. Literature uses language, with its structured grammar and vocabulary, to convey stories, sensations, or arguments, grounding its abstraction in comprehensible symbols. Dance, while highly expressive, utilizes the human body in movement to illustrate significance, which can be translated more concretely compared to the abstraction fundamental in music.

Music, nevertheless, stands apart due to the fact that it runs with a level of abstraction that transcends these concrete and linguistic limits. It utilizes sound, pitch, rhythm, and dynamics as its core materials, which are inherently non-representational. Unlike a painting's usage of images or literature's reliance on words, music does not depict objects or particular narratives straight. It moves through time instead of spatial dimensions, engaging listeners in a temporal experience that evokes emotions, moods, and ideas through noise alone.

This abstraction allows for a wide variety of interpretations and experiences. A single musical piece can stir various emotions or ideas in each listener, depending upon private backgrounds, contexts, and emotions. Music's abstract nature empowers it to communicate beyond the specificity of type or language, typically described as a universal language that goes beyond cultural and linguistic barriers.

Ornstein's observation highlights music's special capability to exist and impact on a pure emotive and philosophical level, typically felt more than comprehended. It likewise highlights music's capability to stimulate the ineffable, potentially affecting human consciousness in ways that are distinct and profound, tapping into the inmost layers of human emotion and understanding.