Contentedly single for almost two years now, I occasionally have those moods, you know the ones, when for a moment in time, you want the exact opposite of what you have. Although I am still firmly entrenched in my distrust of the majority of the male species due to several bad past experiences with them, and the fact that those I still see as the Very few remaining good ones in Alaska are either taken or uninterested, I occasionally feel I miss the companionship.
I, myself, am a terrible dancer. Give me figure skates, and teach me the steps, and apparently I can make art of it upon the ice, but off...I am a complete Queen Clutz. However, sometimes, as now in the middle of studying frantically before having to return to work, (I blame the music of the moment, "Nothing's Wrong" by Catherine Scholz & "Dance With Me Daily" by the Barra McNeils) I am overcome by a gentle longing to have someone dance me gracefully around a room.
Having a fascination, and sometimes feeling I belong in the times, of many things Victorian (the age of and following Jane Austen's time) my imagination gets away from me at times until the moment ends and here I am, back in this plodding century of nothing particularly noteable.
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
The music of our lives
I may be repeating myself a bit, but this has been a reoccurring theme in my mental meanderings over the last couple weeks, seemingly being re-awakened by the oddest and most unconnected group of experiences.
I was watching the introduction credits to a DVD lesson for one of my anthropology courses and it hit me just how much our opinion on something can be swayed by putting images or information about something to a soundtrack. Here were mixed images of children, families, war, faces from all over the planet, starvation, battle, and parties all mixed in, pictures that if seen normally were more than likely not of such photographic quality to elicit an emotional response from their audience. However, with music supporting them, the response was there the instant the picture became visible, maybe even before I could consciously put a name to what it was I was seeing (I hear that our brains can process much more information and at a tremendously faster rate than our conscious attention can).
How is it that we have become so culturally, or maybe as a species as a whole, trained to react to music so quickly and so strongly? My textbook tells me that there is no known culture in the world that does not have music as part of its culture in one way or another. It surrounds us to the point that many of us can discern music even from the natural cacophony of sounds of nature, we hear music where there is only natural or even man-made sounds not meant as such.
I’m not complaining, I gladly claim to have a soundtrack to my life, and will rarely be seen without music on my free-time. I sometimes even deliberately use music with the intention of getting myself into a particular mood, or out of one as the situation might warrant.
The STRENGTH of the human emotional response to music will never cease to amaze me. Many times, such as watching TV or walking into a pub, we don’t even consciously realize that music is there, around us. I have learned to accept that I will get jabbed in the side occasionally, especially during tests, because I am unaware that I am humming something.
As one of my friends mentioned haphazardly, what WOULD happen to people if there were no music? Would we all go through some kind of withdrawal? I doubt it, should the knowledge of music all of a sudden be wiped from our collective knowledge and memory banks, I suspect it would very quickly make its way back into our lives, even if only by way of some bored individual banging on something nearby and rediscovering rhythm as it were. I cannot even claim to comprehend what might happen should the knowledge of music be blocked from our cultural memories.
Sounds like a good science fiction short story idea, I wonder if anyone has done that one yet.
I was watching the introduction credits to a DVD lesson for one of my anthropology courses and it hit me just how much our opinion on something can be swayed by putting images or information about something to a soundtrack. Here were mixed images of children, families, war, faces from all over the planet, starvation, battle, and parties all mixed in, pictures that if seen normally were more than likely not of such photographic quality to elicit an emotional response from their audience. However, with music supporting them, the response was there the instant the picture became visible, maybe even before I could consciously put a name to what it was I was seeing (I hear that our brains can process much more information and at a tremendously faster rate than our conscious attention can).
How is it that we have become so culturally, or maybe as a species as a whole, trained to react to music so quickly and so strongly? My textbook tells me that there is no known culture in the world that does not have music as part of its culture in one way or another. It surrounds us to the point that many of us can discern music even from the natural cacophony of sounds of nature, we hear music where there is only natural or even man-made sounds not meant as such.
I’m not complaining, I gladly claim to have a soundtrack to my life, and will rarely be seen without music on my free-time. I sometimes even deliberately use music with the intention of getting myself into a particular mood, or out of one as the situation might warrant.
The STRENGTH of the human emotional response to music will never cease to amaze me. Many times, such as watching TV or walking into a pub, we don’t even consciously realize that music is there, around us. I have learned to accept that I will get jabbed in the side occasionally, especially during tests, because I am unaware that I am humming something.
As one of my friends mentioned haphazardly, what WOULD happen to people if there were no music? Would we all go through some kind of withdrawal? I doubt it, should the knowledge of music all of a sudden be wiped from our collective knowledge and memory banks, I suspect it would very quickly make its way back into our lives, even if only by way of some bored individual banging on something nearby and rediscovering rhythm as it were. I cannot even claim to comprehend what might happen should the knowledge of music be blocked from our cultural memories.
Sounds like a good science fiction short story idea, I wonder if anyone has done that one yet.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Second Best Invention Ever: Music!
I have to admit, yes, that music has been around at least a millennia, or few, longer than coffee, and thusly I can not claim it was the First best invention ever. *sigh*
Whom-so-ever it was who realized that beating on different objects with something, whether a part of oneself or an external object, could create a variety of intriguing and amusing noises, ranks well among geniuses in my mind. Granted, anthropologically speaking music probably arrived in several geographical locations in several different cultures or emerging cultures at once, but still, whomever(s) it were, deserves several thousand years worth of royalties.
Whoever the famous "They" are, they are right; music captures the human soul. It is the one thing I know of that can capture emotions to such purity and to such an incredibly accurate range; even more than the actual expression of our emotions themselves.This ability, comes second only to one other facet where I am concerned, music's ability to bring forth and change our current moods. Even when in the most terrible, horrible, god-awful mood, put on the right song or track, and by the time the track ends, one's mood can be at the complete opposite end of the emotional spectrum than it was only a few minutes prior.
Okay, granted, the thought that brought, for the umpteenth time this semester, was accompanied by another variable, my beloved coffee, but that is in addition to the fact. My life has a soundtrack, while I am still much too fuzzy in the morning to turn on music first thing and jump-start myself then and there, by the time I am out the door on my way to the bus-stop, in nearly pitch-black at this time of year up here, I am becoming human again, capable of dealing with whatever awaits me outside my personal domain. The catalyst? My treasured iPod. By the time I exit Kaladi's to head up the street to work, the music has worked its charm and it is as if I am opening my real eyes for the first time that day. Even before I have taken my first sip of my 'liquid morning' (as the Raven's Brew cups at school call it-took me Forever, sadly, to get that) the spell is woven; one, that hopefully will outlast the day to come.
I have never met anyone who has claimed not to like any music at all. Many people may not like my music preferences (I say that in the plural because I think I could find a piece from any genre that I would like), but they like some kind of music. It truly seems to be a facet that ties all cultures together. Music, many dialects, one world-wide language of symbolism.
Whom-so-ever it was who realized that beating on different objects with something, whether a part of oneself or an external object, could create a variety of intriguing and amusing noises, ranks well among geniuses in my mind. Granted, anthropologically speaking music probably arrived in several geographical locations in several different cultures or emerging cultures at once, but still, whomever(s) it were, deserves several thousand years worth of royalties.
Whoever the famous "They" are, they are right; music captures the human soul. It is the one thing I know of that can capture emotions to such purity and to such an incredibly accurate range; even more than the actual expression of our emotions themselves.This ability, comes second only to one other facet where I am concerned, music's ability to bring forth and change our current moods. Even when in the most terrible, horrible, god-awful mood, put on the right song or track, and by the time the track ends, one's mood can be at the complete opposite end of the emotional spectrum than it was only a few minutes prior.
Okay, granted, the thought that brought, for the umpteenth time this semester, was accompanied by another variable, my beloved coffee, but that is in addition to the fact. My life has a soundtrack, while I am still much too fuzzy in the morning to turn on music first thing and jump-start myself then and there, by the time I am out the door on my way to the bus-stop, in nearly pitch-black at this time of year up here, I am becoming human again, capable of dealing with whatever awaits me outside my personal domain. The catalyst? My treasured iPod. By the time I exit Kaladi's to head up the street to work, the music has worked its charm and it is as if I am opening my real eyes for the first time that day. Even before I have taken my first sip of my 'liquid morning' (as the Raven's Brew cups at school call it-took me Forever, sadly, to get that) the spell is woven; one, that hopefully will outlast the day to come.
I have never met anyone who has claimed not to like any music at all. Many people may not like my music preferences (I say that in the plural because I think I could find a piece from any genre that I would like), but they like some kind of music. It truly seems to be a facet that ties all cultures together. Music, many dialects, one world-wide language of symbolism.
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