I have taken quite a long break from posting here, mainly because I find that after a while it is difficult to say much new about music. I have been listening to music and finding the music i love as refreshing and beautiful as ever. However, I haven’t had the urge to write much about it. Some themes have been knocking around my head and maybe I’ll try to express them here, although I have probably said them on this site already.
You can’t beat a good melody.
Simplicity in music can often affect us more deeply than complexity.
There is something miraculous about diatonic music — harmony and melody are almost inseperable. Even a simple major chord/arpeggio can have something of the divine about it.
Music is a wonderful way to express human emotion.
The best music doesn’t go out of style.
Thanks, everyone for reading. I’m sorry if I haven’t been as regular as some (including myself) have hoped. Maybe less frequent is actually better, though.
It is amazing to me that such works could have been lying around in a library or museum without people realizing it. It makes me wonder what other works are lying around undiscovered somewhere. This is something that music scholars around the world will be excited about - I hope the pieces will be recorded by someone soon so we can hear what we have been missing all these years!
I just came across an idea whose time, I think, has come.
There is lots of music notation software available which can be used by composers to write music on the computers. Some are very powerful and allow composers to do pretty much anything they want to when it comes to creating scores and sound files. However, most of these programs are very large (and some can be quite expensive) and they must be downloaded to your own computer. Because of the complex work they do these programs can also be very resource hungry and require large amounts of memory and processer speed to work at optimum levels.
I have discovered a program called Noteflight . Here’s what they say about themselves:
Noteflight® is an online application that lets you display, edit, print and play back music notation with professional quality, right in your web browser. You can work on a musical score from any computer on the Internet, share it with other users, and embed it in your own pages. And it’s free for individual use.
I have often thought how hand such a program would be. This allows composers to write music from any computer - even a handheld device. Now I have just come across the program so I don’t know how easy it is to use. There looks to be a bit of a learning curve when you start out, but there is an extensive help section on the web site.
I thought I’d share this with all you current and future compsers. Maybe this will get some new muscial ideas flowing!
I find some of the most beautiful music I know is religious in nature. It seems that among the great composers, often reached their creative and inspirational heights when composing music which glorified God. They were able to be conduits that transmitted beautiful and holy feelings through music.
In many religious traditions we find music being a central part of worship. It seems that music is natural way for the composer and the worshiper to express their love for God.
It is not uncommon to hear religion being blamed for many of the world’s problems, such as war, hate and oppression - yet these things seem completely out of harmony with some of the great masterpieces of religious music. I would venture to say that great religous music - even for those who may not be religious - has the effect of cultivating peace, goodwill and understanding.
Some of my most religious experiences - times when I have felt closest to the Divine - have been through participating in some kind of sacred music.
Here’s one example of a composer reaching the heights of beauty through sacred music.
Here’s one example of a great composer’s ability to create a beautiful piece of religious music.
I am really grateful for the comments I have been getting about ways to provide new musical experiences for children and young people. I thought there were some excellent ideas. Here’s a summary of some of the suggestions so far:
Play music in the car that children wouldn’t ordinary listen to (you have a captive audiences)
Movie soundtracks often contain styles of music that are outside the mainstream, e.g. Lord of the Rings
Kids might enjoy variations and adaptations of classical pieces, e.g. cartoons (My own children have really enjoyed the two Fantasia movies by Disney over the years)
Take children to musical events that you enjoy.
Have musical instruments in your home that your children can experiment with - could lead to formal lessons.
Leave music lying around at home that your children can explore.
Provide for private music lessons for children for at least one year on an instrument of their choice.
Play music for children from a very young age. One comment was, “children are always magnetized to the best”
No TV in the home until age 13.
You can read more detailed comments at the end of my previous post. (Thanks you, Kara and Yvonne!)
Please keep the comments coming — I have received some great ideas!
When I think of children’s musical development, the current state of popular music (and popular culture in general) gives me some cause for concern. Although we live in the most technologically advanced society known in history, and those advancements are spreading across the globe, I don’t know if culturally we are advancing. In fact, we may be declining when it comes to artistic things.
It seems to me that the predominant musical diet of young people today is one which emphasizes the physical at the expense of the spiritual and more refined emotions. One thing I have noticed is that there doesn’t seem to be very much popular music which does not have some kind of driving drumbeat. In some music, if you take away the drum track, there is not very much left at all. it is almost like people are hooked on the incessant backbeat. (Remember “Hooked on Classics” - Classical music made more palatable to the masses by providing a disco backing track to classical favorites?)
Now I don’t have anything against dancing - I think it can be a wonderfully enjoyable activity that can lift the spirits, enrich the soul, and provide great social experiences. I do think though, that there is much more to music than the narrow popular music genres that are so widespread today.
I think therefore that it is important for children and teenagers to have exposure to different styles and genres of music - that they realize that there are alternatives to what is found in the mass media. The home is probably the best place to provide a musical foundation for children. Schools and colleges can also provide great musical opportunities. And in the online world it is not hard at all to come across a huge amount of musical diversity - if people are motivated to explore.
I would be interested to hear from people about ideas for providing musical enrichment - especially for young people. I think we provide a great service when we can show children some of the great musical possibilities that are out there - beyond what they might ordinarily hear.
I got an interesting response to my request for examples of beautiful music from outside the Western musical tradition. The commenter on Twitter said, “How about byzantine chant. About as close to Heaven and you can get.” I did a little research and found out that I was completely unfamiliar with this particular type of music. It seems to sacred music used a lot in the Eastern Orthodox religious tradition. The examples I have listened to have all been male voices. There is a drone over which words are sung in a distinctly non-western musical scale.
Here’s one example I thought I would include here:
My personal response to this type of music is one of interest and curiosity. This is a new, unique sound — but I can’t say that at this point that I would describe as beautiful. For some reason it doesn’t evoke a strong emotional response in me.
I would be very interested to hear people’s opinions.
My previous post was about a study found that listeners could identify emotion in music from the Western tradition even though they had no previous familiarity with it. I recieved a couple of comments from people who were wondering what the results of this study would have been if it had been reversed - with Western listeners reacting to music from an African culture that they had never heard before.
This is causing me to wonder about Western listeners’ reactions to music from different world traditions. I really don’t have much experience with music outside the very broad Western idiom - but I would be very interested to hear from people who do. Specifically, I would like to find examples of non-Western music that people find to be particularly beautiful.
I guess it is unlikely to have very many non-Westerners reading this blog, so this may not be the best place to explore this question. However, if you do have any thoughts or recommendations, I would be very interested.
I found an interesting report of a recent study where a researcher played western music to people in a remote part of Africa who had never even heard a radio before.
Members of the Mafa tribe in Cameroon were asked to listen to Western music and were able to recognize three types of emotion in the music: fear, happiness and sadness. This recognition corresponded to reactions to the same music from Western listeners
The study concludes, “Both Mafa and Western listeners showed an ability to recognize the three basic emotional expressions tested in this study from Western music above chance level. This indicates that these emotional expressions conveyed by the Western musical excerpts can be universally recognized, similar to the largely universal recognition of human emotional facial expression and emotional prosody.”
I found it interesting, but not really surprising, that the emotional aspect of Western music can be recognized by those have not been exposed to it before. For some reason, the Western musical structures seem uniquely suited for the expression of emotion - something I have discussed in an earlier post.
I just came across a wonderful quotation from Arthur Rubenstein, considered one of the great pianists of the 20th century.
He said during a masterclass on Chopin’s first ballade:
“Never sound pompous. You always sound noble, noble. Absolute character of music is nobility. Even popular music can be noble, you see. If it’s not noble, then it’s not very good. Music is an art of emotion, of nobility, of dignity, of greatness, of love, of tenderness. All that must be brought out in music but never a show of pompousness.”
I think what he means by pompousness in music comes when artists try to draw attention to themselves, rather than the music.
I thought this was a very perceptive insight - and well expressed.
