A few says ago I saw a facebook post that made me cringe. Which, honestly, happens quite frequently, but this post in particular needed to be blogged about:
Music should never been deemed good or bad by the way it sounds, But by the way it makes you feel.
Ouch. While I agree that a judgement of musical quality should not be based solely on physical sound, one must not forget that sound is the mode of communication that music uses. Sound is contained in the very definition of music. Additionally, sound is an emotionally evokative phenomenon; one of the most elementary examples of this is the common association of minor keys with sadness or darkness.
Feeling is very poor ground for determining the "goodness" or "badness" of music. While judgement of musical quality will always be subjective to a certain degree, leaving it entirely up to feeling ignores the technique and specific choices of the composer. Musical value is morbidly reduced by the exculsive "feeling criteria."
Sound and feeling work together with a number of other elements, among them being time, thought, and careful planning, to produce good music. What I would consider "bad" music would be something that breaks rules and strategies of writing music, without artistic purpose.
Yes, I did just pull a facebook post apart. I have no life.
Actually, I take that back. I have spent countless hours and days on music; I am studying it as a minor in college. I am far from well read in music theory and literature, but I believe that the past several months have given me a more accurate understanding of what music is. So I do, in fact, have a life.
Reducing the quality-determining factor of such an intricate and mysterious, yet beautifully systematic phenomenon as music to something so base and loose as "feeling" is a rash statement deserving of correction.
I will now return my soapbox to the closet and wish you all a wonderful day.
Friday, May 2, 2014
Sunday, January 5, 2014
Imagine...can I?
i·mag·i·na·tion (ĭ-măj′ə-nā shən)
n.
1.
a. The formation of a mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses.
b. The mental image so formed.
c. The ability or tendency to form such images.
2. The ability to confront and deal with reality by using the creative power of the mind; resourcefulness: handled the problems with great imagination.
3. A traditional or widely held belief or opinion.
4. Archaic
a. An unrealistic idea or notion; a fancy.
b. A plan or scheme.
Definition from The American Heritage Dictionary.
A Google search of "imagination" landed me several Einstein quotes and Brennan's Hierarchy of Imagination:
"Constrained by reality. . ." These days I feel confined to problem solving. On the occaisional good day creativity will come into play a little bit, and I will put together another page in the journal/scrap/picture book my boyfriend and I are making. The majority of my personal journal entries are written for the purpose of figuring myself out: problem solving. Where is the imagination of the novelist? The one who liked to write about dragons and magical books and quests? *queue sad violin music*
I think when I was packing for college a year and a half ago, I shrink wrapped my imagination to preserve it. But it has gone stale from disuse. *full force sad violin music*
So here's to the day, this day, in which I pull my imagination out of the Play Doh canister and squish it up and make it warm again. This is my quest "to confront and deal with reality by using the creative power of the mind," to regain the power to mentally form that which is "neither perceived as real nor present to the senses." *epic hero music*
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. ~ Albert Einstein
n.
1.
a. The formation of a mental image of something that is neither perceived as real nor present to the senses.
b. The mental image so formed.
c. The ability or tendency to form such images.
2. The ability to confront and deal with reality by using the creative power of the mind; resourcefulness: handled the problems with great imagination.
3. A traditional or widely held belief or opinion.
4. Archaic
a. An unrealistic idea or notion; a fancy.
b. A plan or scheme.
Definition from The American Heritage Dictionary.
A Google search of "imagination" landed me several Einstein quotes and Brennan's Hierarchy of Imagination:
"Constrained by reality. . ." These days I feel confined to problem solving. On the occaisional good day creativity will come into play a little bit, and I will put together another page in the journal/scrap/picture book my boyfriend and I are making. The majority of my personal journal entries are written for the purpose of figuring myself out: problem solving. Where is the imagination of the novelist? The one who liked to write about dragons and magical books and quests? *queue sad violin music*
I think when I was packing for college a year and a half ago, I shrink wrapped my imagination to preserve it. But it has gone stale from disuse. *full force sad violin music*
So here's to the day, this day, in which I pull my imagination out of the Play Doh canister and squish it up and make it warm again. This is my quest "to confront and deal with reality by using the creative power of the mind," to regain the power to mentally form that which is "neither perceived as real nor present to the senses." *epic hero music*
Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. ~ Albert Einstein
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