Music Alone : Philosophical Reflections On The Purely Musical Experience

It is intriguing how something simple as sound waves affect our emotions deeply. Igor Stravinsky’s famous ballet score “Rite of Spring” had a massacre theme with very disturbing images and surprisingly, the audience responded with a bloody riot with people even hitting Stravinsky. The second time the audience heard the music, they applauded him and to a greater surprise, the same music became Disney’s music. This transition of people’s dislike of a music to greatly appreciating piece is done by the brain. As the music repeats, the brain has the capacity to tune into to it and even adjust to that sound. When we hear unfamiliar noises that are dissonant or unpleasant, auditory cortex’s role is to differentiate the plethora of sounds and find

Reimer’s viewpoint is that all our experiences musically, regardless of the music itself educate our being. Refining, clarifying, broadening, and deepening our feelings in a way analogous to how language does the same for our conceptual reasoning’s (Reimer, 2005). The aesthetic music education philosophy emphasizes individual feeling and a more comprehensive understanding of the role of feelings in the music listener and performer as

Often music is consisted not only by sounds made from musical instruments, but also by voice and verbal messages. The structure of the voice, or as Roland Barthes describes it ‘the grain of voice’ is the element in a certain piece of music which is responsible for creating the emotions when listening. The grain and the lyrics make the signified and carry out the message. The vocal part of music is formed of words, text, which communicate and make the representation and expression of what it is sung - talked about. According to Barthes the emotive modes of the voice and the changes of the tones from low to high is what delivers the final message and makes us feel the music. (Barthes, R. 1977 [1972]).

Igor Stravinsky, a late Russian composer from the 20th century, makes a sound argument about the purpose of the existence of music. In summary, Stravinsky’s argument states that music’s purpose is not one of expression and the emotions that are felt from listening to music are illusions. He continues by saying that the idea that music is expressive is an ideology that has been forced upon music and that has confused its true purpose. After first reading Stravinsky’s words, I immediately had a gut reaction that his argument was wrong and absurd. How could all of the emotions that music has made me feel be illusions? I instantly start formulating all of the ways that I could negate this claim with ease solely with the evidence of my experiences.

To understand why music is a product of human intention and perception, we start by defining or understanding the nature of music. Music is defined as the sounds or combination of vocals and instruments in a way that it produces a form of beauty, expression, or harmony of emotions. Arguably, people compose or make music through many ways (Resnicow, Joel E., 20-29). While some people might compose music without incorporating instruments, others use instruments to produce beats that match with their sounds. However, to argue that the

According to Laurence O’Donnell, “Music is thought to link all of the emotional, spiritual, and physical elements of the universe.” This proves that music is more than a simple class teaching random notes. It is a common denominator

For as long as mankind has walked on this earth, music has been an important part of our culture and lifestyles. Each walk of life beats to a different drum. Different cultures use music for many aspects of their lives; for religious purposes, for celebrations, for comfort, for sorrow, for relaxation, for sports, for dances, for energy, for learning, for sleeping, and for sexual experiences. Everyone uses music for something. Music connects with people and reaches them in ways that words simply cannot. Music is a representation of what feelings sound like. It expresses emotion and brings that characteristic out from within us; it tells us a story. Every generation has its’ own sound and different music styles have emerged and become

Music is the only medium that blesses both man and God at the same time and as such to see it as an entertainment factor within our worship services is a gross misunderstanding of its purpose. Music is made up of three elements: melody, harmony, and rhythm. Mankind is also made up of three parts: spirit, soul and body (1 Thess 5:23). It can be argued that music and the triune, or trichotomy, of mankind are intrinsically linked i.e. melody is likened to the spirit, harmony to the soul and rhythm to the body.

Few would argue against the idea that we educate ourselves and our society so that we have adequate means with which to understand and interact with elements of the world around us. Subjects such as mathematics, language, history, and the hard sciences are granted immediate and unquestioned legitimacy in our schools, and with good reason. We encounter each of these elements of our lives on a daily basis. We need to have an understanding of these disciplines in order to interact with them, otherwise they are meaningless to us. I submit that the same can be said for the fundamental concepts of music. Music is something that we encounter in our society every day. It surrounds us. Indeed

In this book, philosopher Stephen Davies attempts to explain why music has meaning. When we talk about music we do not say that we only enjoy it. We also talk of music's ability to understood or misunderstood. Sometimes music appears to speak towards deep feelings and experiences. Consequently, some music is viewed as having a content that makes these expressions available. Therefore, the driving question of this book is: what does music mean?

Thesis: Music is a unique form of sound powerful enough to manipulate mood, feelings, and cognition.

One might discern that the simple melody is nice, but becomes boring after a few repetitions. On the other hand, a child could hear this same simple melody without being bored. As children tend to listen to these simple melodies more often, those same melodies become nostalgic later in life. Some studies Levitin has made has shown that people’s “musical preferences are also influenced by what [they’ve] experienced before, and whether the outcome of that experience was positive or negative.” (Levitin 242) These studies have merit as I am a prime example. Move Your Feet has been a favorite of mine since a young age and the nostalgia I hold for the song has affected my taste in music as a whole today. The nostalgia this song brings forth for me is mainly from when my sisters and I used to play a video game named Dance Dance Revolution. The game included a huge selection of music in which the player would dance and earn points based on how accurately timed the movements were. One might extrapolate which song was my personal favorite. Therefore, Move Your Feet has always been known as “my song” between my sisters and I. After reading British neurologist, naturalist, and author, Oliver Sack’s article “Music on the Brain: Imagery and Imagination,” I realized that the concept of “musical imagery” exemplifies what I feel when I think of Dance Dance Revolution. He described musical imagery as “intense and repeated exposure to a particular piece or sort of music.” (Sacks 37) I possess such an exposure to the song due to the quotidian nature of my gaming habits. Consequently, whenever Dance Dance Revolution comes to mind, I immediately think of Move Your Feet by Junior Senior. Additionally, at my sister’s wedding, she played this song on the dance floor. Ergo, whenever I think about that time, this song plays in my

So how does this expectation of ours bring pleasure to music? The brain correlates to music by

Throughout time individuals have found music to possess undeniable alluring qualities. To contrast the general populations enjoyment of music comes Sigmund Freud’s point of view. Sigmund Freud establishes his discontents with music, in that passage to showcases his dislike toward the art concept of music as a whole. Furthermore, Freud believes music to be “unanalyzable” and meaningless due to its lack of words. This interpretation of music is extremely concrete because music is much more than words on a page, music evokes emotion from within. Freud has an appreciation for other medians of art such as sculptures but does not hold that gratitude for music. However, both lack words. Freud explains how he critiques art pieces by “explain(ing) to myself what their effect is due to.” His method of analyzing elaborates on his claim of not finding meaning in music because he believes that without words meaning cannot be found. Freud highlights individual’s inability to look beyond what is apparent to find the deeper meaning within something seemingly concrete.

Music itself is considered as a language. Music and language are related in many ways. Because music stimulates our sense of hearing, it is clear that music can, and inevitably does, convey information. I consider that music is, by its very nature, has the power to express everything, whether a feeling, an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a phenomenon of nature, etc. Although it can be said that music usually tends to express something, this is only an illusion, and not a reality. It is precisely this, which produces in us a unique emotion which has nothing in common with our ordinary sensations and our responses to the impressions of daily life. Music expresses, at different moments, serenity or liveliness, regret or triumph, fury or delight. It expresses each of these moods, and many others, in a numberless variety of differences. It may even express a state of meaning for which there exists no adequate word in any language. In that case, musicians often like to say that it has only a purely musical meaning. They sometimes go farther and say that all music has only a purely musical meaning. My own belief is that all music has an expressive power, some more and some less, but that all music has a certain