During one of my slower nights, in between watching 30 Rock and editing vocals for a song, something pretty cool came to me. Maybe it's obvious to everyone else, but I've often wondered why music traverses across every culture of every continent on earth. Why does the need for music seem so fundamental and universally understood?
My first thought was the majority of music is the same. Even comparing eastern and western music styles, there are obvious similarities, similarities that make music identifiable as music. We're about to get really basic for a minute, but I promise this is going somewhere. All music has tempo and rhythm. Tempo is the thing that keeps the sound in time and rhythm is the subdivision and repetition of that tempo. Tempo is the first thing that separates music from noise. Now to anyone with a background in western music history, I'm aware that things such as rhythm and tempo weren't denoted in early notation, such as Gregorian chant. But the tempo and rhythm of a chant was still inherent in the aural tradition of the piece. Also, I'm not suggesting that all music has a constant rhythm or tempo. In modern terms, if you take a phrase such as, "It would be awesome if the Yankees don't make the playoffs this year", it's only a phrase until a tempo and rhythms are assigned, then it becomes rap. The next step is to assign melodies, both to the phrase and to an accompaniment. There can be other things like chords, form, dynamics and so on, but I feel like I've gone into way too much detail to explain my original point; music has a foundation that ties together all the different genres.
I would argue parallels can be drawn to the similarities between people. Music and people are 99% the same (don't do the math). Like music, there is a basic foundation that ties all people together. DNA, emotions, instinct and so on. This is why music is so basic across every culture and is such a need in our world. People "get" music. Regardless of language, music education and the era the music was written in, a song will provoke an emotional response in a person and it is often the common response. I believe without music, some paramount ideas that bring us together as a race would never be discovered. And now for one of my favorite quotes, take it away Victor Hugo:
"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent"
Well said Victor, well said.
-De (and Victor Hugo)
I would argue parallels can be drawn to the similarities between people. Music and people are 99% the same (don't do the math). Like music, there is a basic foundation that ties all people together. DNA, emotions, instinct and so on. This is why music is so basic across every culture and is such a need in our world. People "get" music. Regardless of language, music education and the era the music was written in, a song will provoke an emotional response in a person and it is often the common response. I believe without music, some paramount ideas that bring us together as a race would never be discovered. And now for one of my favorite quotes, take it away Victor Hugo:
"Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent"
Well said Victor, well said.
-De (and Victor Hugo)
As a huge fan of music, I've been meaning to comment on this for a few days now. Mostly I love that you posted about it period. I am in full agreement with both you and VH, music deeply touches and moves us in a places that is closer to our thoughts, feelings and spirits then other means of communication. Music creates a space in which a duality occurs in that it transports us instantly to a place, time and emotion we had when we first heard the sound. This travel occurs while allowing us to be in our current place, time and emotion reflecting on that past "us".
ReplyDeleteMusic is used for healing therapies because of the rhythm and tempo and how organic both are. They not only help our breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, anxiety and stress, but also such things health issues as migraines, cancer, fatigue, depression, upset stomach, anger management, premature born babies, plant growth, and animals that are undergoing similar health stresses are treated with certain types of music with positive responses.
There is an awesome book called "Musicophilia" by Oliver Sacks, which I highly recommend to anyone interested in music. The book covers many interesting topics and music in humans in the ways that music therapy affects different disorders in so many ways that no other medicines, therapies and time has been able to reach or help the patients, it mentions cases of people that cannot hear music, distinguish music, and things like perfect pitch.... It was really wonderful and a good read!
First of all, awesome comments and thank you! This will definitely not be my last post about music. I think next time, I'll formulate a question or poll for the MoT Nation group, in correlation to the topic, to hopefully get some more discussion going. Also, this book sounds pretty damn cool. If I ever escape the tiresome and uninspiring readings for school, I'll check it out.
ReplyDelete-De