"Coooooooo. Trillllllll. SCREEEEEEEEEEECH!!!" - w0ttm
Yes - there are some birds which spoil the concert..
Magpies are the ones I hate most - They have no interest in music, and when a group of them fly in looking for breakfast, the chorus stops. Crows are another which spoil the show instantly.
"Perhaps, he's saying that music itself, which is (usually) some form of organized sound, has no power of it's own to emote. It is our perception of and intellectual and emotional reaction to the sound which gives it magical powers." - Jeff
Yeah, Im sure that he meant something like that..
But IMO its a pointless thing to say - its like saying that speech has "essentially powerless to express anything at all" or that no-one can hurt you by what they say, that it is your reaction to what they say which hurts.. All true at face value - the words have no "power", the music has no "power" .......
The above is a good example of the kind of stupid things people who analyse too deeply often say - I do it all the time - Yeah, the analysis is correct at one level, but oh so pointless and wrong on every other level.
Here is one of the things I think music does, which has "power"..
If I have an emotion (or usually a collection of emotions - an emotional "state") which is difficult to describe, I have been able to create a piece of music which allows me to "encapsulate" that state - The act of doing this often makes this "state" more managable.
Now - If I play this to someone, I often get the IMPRESSION that they have a better understanding of my "state" - and often appear to have an "empathic" connection to it.
I can play music I composed years ago, and instantly be transported back to the state I was in when I produced it - I dont do this often, because much of what I created was from states I have no wish to re-visit.. But some pieces were created when I was in a great "place" (the piece I play most at the moment was created a few months after an ex partner had left - I had got to the state of enjoying the peace and freedom).
And I play music created by others which (TO ME) seem to have been created in an emotional state I can relate to, and which convey emotions I want to be reminded of.
I cannot know whether the emotional "triggers" I get from the creations of others are the same states that the creator had, or that the creator "intended" - All I can know is the effect of the music on me. I do know that the majority of music I have created has come from my emotional "drivers", and that the emotions I feel when I play these are the same, albeit "modified" by my present state.
I cannot know if the emotional response others have to any piece of music is the same response I get.
Fred.
