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The “Philosophical” side of Music Theory... 🤔
Hiya. 🌻 Would like to get your thoughts, ideas, stories, and feelings on (fur lack of a better word) a “philosophy” of music. I’ve seen comments of this nature scattered here and there on the forum, and thought it would be good to have a thread. (If you see a comment or quote from anyone that might spur discussion on this topic, please post it! Doesn’t matter if the idea is “yours”).
So, to kick off the idea-fest... (more of a punt, lol). Here’s an off-the-wall thought that recently occurred. I think there is musical perception / generalization that slow tempo music is usually more “emotional” or “soulful” and fast tempo music tends to be more “physical” or “sensual”. I can see why that usually might be the case. Maybe that’s the general rule of thumb.
But could there be exceptions to this? I noticed that when playing the keyboard faster than my usual strolling pace, sometimes I feel in a zone that feels surprisingly emotional or even “spiritual”. It’s like when going fast, my ears and hands are going faster than my brain. Or perhaps instinct and intuition are getting the upper hand over intellect, at least temporarily 😄. Maybe it’s a right brain vs left brain thing... not sure. Even quickly doing (maybe around 130-150 BPM) simple patterns and arpeggios in C major or A minor (aka the easy-to-reach white keys, lol) in a semi-melodic way seems sufficient to produce this effect that perhaps could be compared to the practice of “automatic writing” that some find helpful.
Anyway... I’ve been finding it a useful thing. Even when taking a simple popular melody (like the theme from the Terminator for instance) and getting silly with it. Half the time the results are “meh”. The other half of the time, the results aren’t half bad!
Ok... your turn! (Some brew or herbs might be of assistance in getting... erm... philosophical. 😂)
Comments
Not so much philosophical as psychological I reckon Mr > @haulin_notes ... surprising common - across cultures and musical traditions ... folks from the arctic to the tropics can spot a lullaby and know it's not a dance or work song - we respond "appropriately".
Not just BPM but also scale, chord structure, melody timbre - the whole music caper shifts the response. It's a very manipulative business down deep.
There's actually quite a bit of psychology online pertaining to music - whether we hear something "common and fundamental" or the emotion the musician puts into it ... and we aren't necessarily just listening - there's memory and all sorts of complex physiology going on. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/science-choice/201807/why-are-we-moved-music
Repetitive music, especially at a moderate tempo or faster, can be very meditative. King Crimson’s “Discipline” is, for me, a great example.
@Soundscaper 😊👍 Great stuff, thanks!
Psychological, anthropological, even the hard “real” sciences, lol. (I kid the humanities subjects). Interesting / favorite quotes about the experience or meaning of music would be relevant, too. Nice article in your link. I like the part about music as "auditory cheesecake." Mmmm... cheesecake...
Definitely, thanks! Will check out that song. Psytrance is probably an aptly named genre. Also, like many others, I find Tuvan thoat singing to be wonderfully hypnotic, uplifting, relaxing.
@kgmessier Perhaps you meant the whole album entitled “Discipline”? Anyway, I hadn’t heard the song until just now. Wow. Spellbinding. 😲👍 I don’t know what exactly is going on, but it is a perfect example of the idea expressed in the OP. The arpeggios in unusual scales reminds one of Philip Glass’s music for Koyaanisqatsi. Here’s a piano cover of it:
For your enjoyment, and possibly inspiration...
I meant the title track in particular, but the entire album is iconic. This piano adaptation is wonderful! Thanks for sharing the link.
@haulin_notes ... ALL men going in circles. As usual.
Lungs breathing, heart beating. Rain pattering, lightning and its thundering. That is all ye know on earth and all ye need Know.
Lol! Well, yea... pretty much. As long as fights don’t break out, call it break-even. Though come to think of it, the Earth has been going around in circles for like... YEARS. Some scientists and a blue-ribbon panel of experts and other celebrities should look into that, maybe get us on a straight path. 🤓
Very poetic. Thank you. Yours? Or is it from a classic that I should have read in high school?
@haulin_notes ... Keats, actually. “Truth is beauty, Beauty, truth. That is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know”... mine was just a cover.
Psychedelic trance music is seen as a spiritual expression and thats played at 130 to 160 bpm.
Mind it might have more to do with everyone being off their nut on various substances which the name suggests.
All King Edwards Horses Can Make Big Fences.
We horse trainers use this saying to help students memorize the order of the letters that surround a dressage ring.
Tell a Student memorize A, K, E, H, C, M, B, F, and they'll have a hard time. But when it's taught as a saying, most will remember it after hearing the saying only once.
This is called associative learning.
Many reading this may not even know what dressage is, or even care. But you might be surprised that you will now forever remember the order of the letters that surround a dressage ring.
One purpose for music since the dawn of human history, has been it's use for associative learning.
Cultures throughout time have set beliefs that are important to the perpetuation on the culture, into words that are either sung or chanted to a rhythm, or to music.
Examples range from the songs sung by soldiers marching to drum rhythms into battle. To religious hymns sung by worshipers, or ritual songs that are associated with religious beliefs.
If we look back to the the times of Homer of Ancient Greece. We see that Homer's Iliad (the story of the Trojan War), was originally a spoken poem. Anthropologists call this type of non-written passing down of information from one generation to the next, "Oral History". Oral Histories are almost always is the form of pome, verse, or song.
In middle age Europe, the average individual was illiterate. This was the era where Bards, Minstrels, and Troubadours, acted as the keepers and preveyors of tales and stories, that were important to the cultural beliefs of the people of those times. The stores told by Bards, Minstrels, and Troubadours were spoken in the form of poems or songs. This is another example of a way oral histories were passed down to subsequent generations before the advent of widespread literacy.
With these example of "oral tradition" in mind. I think one can imagine back to times in prehistory, and think it very likely, that "oral tradition" set within a frameworks of rhythm, and song, must have been a very important factory for the evolution of human culture.
This is why later explorers during the "Age of Exploration" (15th to 17th centuries). Found music, rituals, singing, and dance, in most every primitive culture they encountered.
I think is a fair argument to say that humanity arose from primitive hominids into modern humans, because at some point the hominid mind developed the capability to pass down information important for survival to subsequent generations. Using the ability to set that information into easy to remember songs, chants, dance, and ritual. That may very likely be a key factor that helped determine the success of our ancestors in surviving to become the humanity that now exists in the present.
I used this topic as inspiration for my last #jamuary post of the month. 147 BPM
@horsetrainer 🙂👍 Thanks for the informative and thoughtful post! Most appreciated. I would agree that many aspects of the oral cultures that flourished before written history are integral to who we are as humans today. And IMHO if more attention and respect (besides the obvious revenue generating possibilities) were given to those aspects that still remain in our culture, as well as the few remaining cultures that are mostly oral-based, there would be an increase in overall happiness (for lack of a more precise word).
The written word and the sung word could be thought of as respectively the Yang and Yin of human communication. And like in many other areas, there is (as I see it) currently an imbalance in the Force... usually too much Yang. The artist, not unlike the Jedi, is here to recover some sense of balance in these energies, for the potential benefit of humanity and perhaps even the Earth. ☯️
@auxmux Nice song! Moving and active, yet peaceful. It can be the theme music for this topic, lol.
(NOTE: this is a quote from another thread. Thought it quite interesting, and relevant to this one. Nice one! @TheDubbyLabby 😊)
Glad to see it could be useful
In the end we will find the start.
Universe is circular (or spiral with subtle changes)
Edit: about your OP post...
Do you know the term zone or flow?
We are beings not just brains. Mind is more than brain (as example that connection I explain in the quoted message).
When you feel that upper connection you are more than know.
When you go fast and can’t control what is happening it ends in ego disconnection so you can access that upper one (called life, nature or enlightment if you prefer) so you are and there is no need for control at the same time.
Meditation seeks for this state by calming that ego mind to allow us be part of all.
Extenuation has the same effect since the body is alive and when we put it to the edge the first thing to ditch is the unnecessary ego mind (or almost unnecessary extra processing). That’s why lots of religious dances and events have the body to the edge as first rule (torturing the body to reset these processes) to achieve connection (aliveness).
The zone, flow, wu wei, zen, mindfulness... all are the same principle. For me music does the same and like better than drugs without the bad effects in health.
Thanks! 😄 Despite breakbeats, the end result still feels reflective to me.
👍 Thanks, well put!
To the extent that music (as in other expressive arts) can reflect or even incarnate the energies, sensations, and rhythms of the wider world, is the amount of raw material such art has at its disposal.
A tree is as strong as its roots are deep and wide...
Not sure if everyone can get to this link, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dt78
it is the third episode from a tv series from here in the UK .. Stuart Copeland of Police fame exploring the transcendent powers of music.
It re-iterates a lot of what is said here about repetition, it also mentions specifically the 4 chord song ( turnaround ? ) as having a particularly lifting effect.
In answer to faster tempo's able to be spiritual, yes...gospel is one example
That makes sense. 4 is stable non discussed, trusted, legs of tables in esoteric numerology field. So mind control from security (not necessary from conspiracy) but also baby songs (nanas in spanish) to calm that ego (which is primary function is keep safe our lives and the root from fear born) so you can sleep peacefully...
Universe is mathematics
Light and sound
Fear
but also
Love
Thanks Andy, but not available in the U.S. Why!?! One of my favorite people and drummers. He's so inquisitive and smart and opinionated at the same time. Love the guy.
Repetition for me is my salve. I use it like therapy. Soothing and grooving.
Repeat.
The program is called 'Stuart Copeland's Adventures in Music' ....... it was on BBC4 over here, may be worth a search..you never know