By: gveers

gveers — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:08:44 +0000

I think you are right on in that the relationships of the notes are more important than their absolute values. Though I still think there is some kind of value-driven association we make with going up the scale vs. going down the scale (and of course the rate at which this is done, and the instruments used, etc etc.)

By the way, are you really that big a Kraftwerk fan? I’ve considering picking up Autobahn just so I can appreciate their place in history, though I haven’t heard a lick of their music. Actually Autobahn is the only album I know by them, so I’m not even sure that’s where to start.

“Music psychology” – do you know, I’ve wanted to read up on this kind of stuff but wasn’t even sure where to begin. I think it starts with this term.

By: Apuleius

Apuleius — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 03:37:42 +0000

I agree in general with your point about emotionalism in music. I think music delivers a punch directly to the more primitive, precognitive areas of the brain (I’m no neurosurgeon and that’s undoubtedly an oversimplification, but bear with me) — an emotional, not a considered or rational response. It;s after we absorb the emotion that we sit down and ask ourselves why it was powerful or not. In any case, in my opinion it’s not the up or down, but the relationships of the notes to each other. A major 5th sounds “right” for some reason…who knows why, but it does. Bach wrote “perfect” music…it always does the right thing, it’s never tense. The Beethoven revolution of the sublime was to introduce disharmony — minor, unresolving chords — to the musical landscape. Wagner, obviously, took this to ridiculous lengths, dwelling on the suspense of resolution to give his work emotional power. It’s easy to listen to because the chord structure gives us an emotional response entirely different than Bach. Beethoven and Bach assuredly both have ‘up’ and ‘down’ bits, but the relationship in the notes they choose in making their runs are different. Bach has nice regular arpeggios, while Beethoven throws a wrench in the works and milks our tension. I think most of modern music (and in that I include anything post-Beethoven) is arranging sounds in new ways to recapture the thrill of that first emotional response to the unexpected — whether Stravinsky (who caused a riot during the first performance of Rite of Spring) or Cage (using the negative space, i.e. silence, to create tension), or Kraftwerk (duh). I’m fairly certain there’s a robust literature on the psychology of music if you care to look…

Comments on: Observations on Music

By: gveers

By: Apuleius