Let's talk music, no genre boundaries
This is an offshoot of the jazz thread. I and others found that we could not talk about jazz without discussing other musical genres, as well as the philosophy of music. So, this is a thread in which people can suggest good music of all genres, and spout off your feelings about music itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqjsFTjLNyE If we take the 4 notes in their 4 possible combinations we get (someone please correct this if I’ve made any mistakes) : A, C, G, D = R, b3, b7,11 or sus 4 = Am7/11 C, G, D, A = R, 5, 9, 6 = C add 6/9 (no 3rd) G, D, A, C = R, 5, 9, 11 or sus 4 = G add 9/11 (no 3rd) or G add 9 sus4 D, A, C, G = R, 5, b7, 11 or sus 4 = D7 sus 4 I wonder how these chords played as a progression might affect our DNA...
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I am posting a Van Morrison song that I wanted to post on the jazz forum, but I knew that others would not consider this song jazz. Yet I listen to it the way I listen to jazz. Not intricate, heady jazz, but something that lifts my spirit. I consider Van Morrison's voice to be the improv lead. So, go ahead and slap me across the face and say, "No way that's jazz." |
This year I’ve seemingly upped my listening when it comes to female vocals driven music but I've added a post rock, experimental HipHop and some electronic stuff in there
Here are some of my most listened albums this year: Cina Soul - Did I Lie (https://ziiki.ffm.to/didilie) Yaya Bey - do it afraid (https://drinksumwtr.lnk.to/yaya-bey-do-it-afraid) Little Simz - Lotus (https://lnk.to/2OLdEEUt) Miley Cyrus - Something Beautiful (https://mileycyrus.lnk.to/SomethingBeautiful) Kilo Kish - negotiations (https://independent.ffm.to/negotiations) Ray Vaughn - The Good The Bad The Dollar Menu (https://rayvaughn.lnk.to/TGTBTD) FM Skyline and Equip - Music 2 (https://fmskyline.bandcamp.com/album/music-2) Windows 96 - Awkward Dance Music(https://windows96.bandcamp.com/album/awkward-dance-music) Swans - Birthing (https://swans.bandcamp.com/album/birthing) Bruit ≤ - The Age of Ephemerality (https://orcd.co/bruit)
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@stuartk, I like a lot of ideas in the youtube you posted. I think there is no question that music affects our emotions and moods. I have no idea what it means to affect our DNA. Although, I think that since I've begun listening to music all morning and early afternoon, I have become more "mellow" and accepting. I don't get stressed out the way I used to. As for your series of notes, I don't have an instrument to play them and I can't imagine them in my head. Maybe you'll play with them on your guitar? It seems like the Mhiz posted on the youtube were all mid-bass? As for patterning in general, I did a lot of reading about fractals and complexity a number of years ago. I've also read some interesting books on the evolution of the universe. The British physicist Paul Davies has written about the universe and God. I read a book about the Gaia Theory by James Lovelock many years ago. He talks about the universe and the earth being living beings. Mathematical fractals correspond to the shapes of leaves and other natural occurrences. An artist friend talked to me about some studies that found fractals in Jackson Pollack's art. I often wonder what the earliest music must have sounded like. I assume it had a strong beat and the melody from a flute or whatever was less important than it is today. Music is the only art that exists in time, as @mahgister has talked about, and I have a feeling that the beats in time are fundamental to any human music. Thank you for the list. I'll listen to the ladies later. I've been listening to Robyn as I write this because it's late in the day and I need a kick in the ass. I, too, love the female voice. Maybe I'll post some youtube examples later. |
In the beginning there was not speech on one side music on the other. Social interaction must had been motivated by rythms to unite the tribe in a work. Speech dont exist without body members gestures rythms and without throat/mouth motivated tonal sound (continuous vowel and discontinuous consonants) and specific body timbre. In the beginning speech and music are one, and when they separate in the days activities they reunite in the calm of night. Speech makes music through not only singing but speaking. And music spoke as in the Nigeria the Yoruba they call their drum "talking Drums". Yoruba is the name of a tribe of his language and of his drums.
Also music not only exist in time but exist as time itself, at least a time of his own. Musical time is a specific musical concept...Musical time cannot be reduced to measurable physical time. It is a qualitative rythmic time linked to the body gestures felt as a rythm. here from the web a few concepts about musical time you certainly know: «Beat: The basic unit of time in music, providing a regular pulse. Tempo: The speed of the music, often measured in beats per minute (BPM) Meter: The grouping of beats into recurring patterns, indicated by time signatures. Measure (or Bar): A segment of time corresponding to a specific number of beats, separated by bar lines Time Signature: A notation that indicates the meter, specifying the number of beats per measure and the type of note that receives one beat. Rhythm: The arrangement of sounds and silences in time, encompassing note durations, rests, and patterns»
Now these concepts come from written classical music.When i speak about musical time ( Ansermet wrote a huge book about it) i spoke mainly from the phenomenology of felt conscious qualitative time(a duration said Bergson debating with Einstein) In our evolution it was the body improvising gestures that created his own time as a meaningful content to be repeated or commented by others body gestures as a musical and spoken answer in the tribe or in the social group.
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All of this musical sophistication couldn't have occurred at once. Certain things must have happened first, then others, then others. Early Homos sapiens probably didn't have a concept of time beyond the sun setting and rising. Phases of the moon, too. This is a total aside, but I wonder what was inherited from the Neanderthals. Apparently they made art and buried their people. I don't think Einstein every speculated on how people experience time in relative time frames. It seemed to me that the twin going nearly the speed of light would experience relative time the same as the twin "standing still." A concept that nobody has ever explained to my satisfaction. How can it be that centrifugal force works whether we're on a space ship traveling 60,000 mph relative to the earth or resting on the earth? Below I will post a youtube of one of my favorite female singers, Tracy Thorne of "Everything but the Girl." In the jazz forum we were talking about Billie Holiday having a limited voice but tremendous depth of emotion. I am not comparing Tracy Thorne with Billy Holiday, exceept she also has a somewhat limited voice with not a lot of range, yet she hits me emotionally as deeply as any other singer. Her husband Ben Watt lays down the background. |
You dont get what i spoke about it seems... When you speak are you conscious of the complex mechanisms behind syntax and semantic ? Not at all, we learned it without even knowing what we do... It is the same for the musical time, which is born from our complex response to society and to Nature from the body members (rythm) and from the throat/mouth (timbre and tonality)... Then this "musical sophistication" occurred from the beginning...But it is now that we get this sophistication consciously understood... Ancient language are not less complex than english... it is the opposite... And Einstein concept of time or Newton concept of time has nothing to do with "musical time" not measured by the watch, and if so is being denatured and lost...It must be felt not counted...
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The first nations people of Australia seem to have a continuous culture extending back at least 65,000 years. Their songlines are a form of oral history documented in dance formations and storytelling. Remarkably, they include a narrative of the end of the last major ice-age about 12,000 years ago, when sea levels rose by several hundred feet as ice sheets melted. The shoreline swallowed large tracts of land, and allowed the Great Barrier Reef to form. In North America the Great Lakes formed at this time from the remnant fresh water from melting glaciers. This period marked the first cultivation of plants by humans. Most likely the earliest musical instruments go back at least 40,000 years and included two clapsticks beaten together, plus hollowed out tree branches - the didgeridoo. Ants do a good job of hollowing gum tree branches. Didgeridoo players can breathe continuously into the instrument while 'talking' to create an incredible variety of sounds. Clapsticks (hundreds of them) and didgeridoo featured in the opening work of the refurbished Sydney Opera House, in "Of the Earth" by Willian Barton. I cannot conceive how music for the didgeridoo can be written down! Unfortunately archeological evidence of very early instruments may be restricted to rock paintings, as the instruments were made of perishable materials. |
Very important observation about breathing and non written music... breath is a gesture as is speech or playing an instrument... Some gesture can be written some others not, the flow in time and his cycles created a time dimension proper to music and not to metronome measured by the clock time... I own 20 albums of didgeridoo, not one is like an other... This music may be very powerful...
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Women sing for the child even before birth... It is women that create humor to control the male hubris, the women were center to the social net, and they co-create speech which is music with the hunting male group imitating animals and communicating between them... S. Pinker once said that music was secondary... https://iai.tv/articles/pinker-vs-nietzsche-is-music-the-basis-of-language-auid-3247
Nietszche said the opposite...
He was right and this explain why i never read Pinker... Music and linguistics are linked if we think about language origin and more so if we observe the hidden iceberg part : the motivation of sounds...The sound signs are not absolutely arbitrary,Saussure for methodological reason establishes the arbitrary of sounds system as starting point. Others linguists takes this further and posed it as a dogma...They are wrong.. But it is another story... I am interested by linguistics too and especially by the differences between oral first cultures and the invention of written signs and after it by the huge abyss of the Greek alphabet created and its impact on Greek thought ...Not just music and acoustics...
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@audio-b-dog - "No way is that jazz" is what a lot of purists said about Miles Davis' music starting with 'In A Silent Way, and continuing with 'Bitches Brew' on onward... That's the only kind of 'jazz' that I happen to like, too... So Van can be jazz... |
I presume human music began with groups gathered around fire pits, banging sticks and bones against rocks, bones and sticks, this or whatever materials available. I can recall many a time when gathered around fires someone picks up a stick and starts banging away, soon enough the entire group has gathered up sticks, rocks, whatever and banging in unison. It always felt like some primitive instinct took over the entire group, great times. Lately I've been watching some Prehistoric-Neolithic band performances on video, awesome! |
Do you like Jazz? Jazz that strays into pop and country? Beautiful female vocals? then brother (and sister), have I got a song for you. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6wYJplRjnE&list=RDR6wYJplRjnE&start_radio=1 |
@richardbrand, @mahgister, As a few of you know, I have certain biases regarding music. @mahgister I agree with Neitsche too. He said tragic plays need music behind them. My interest is in religion. I am not religious, but a student of religion as it is an expression of historical periods and peoples. I don't think I'll get into the discussion about how music began because it is irrelevant to my beliefs. I think David Lewis Williams in his book "The Mind in the Cave" and G.R. Levy in her book "The Gate of Horn" made strong arguments that the ancient caves were churches. I won't go into my arguments about why I think women were the first shamans and priests, but Williams made a strong argument that the shamans and priests did the cave paintings. When I talk about "religion" from the Upper Paleolithic, I am talking about a spiritual expression without dogma. I see it as an existential expression. "I exist as part of the earth which is the Great Mother." It is pretty clear from archaeological findings that the idea of a deity was female up until maybe 9,000 years ago. The poet Enehduanna (circa 2300 BCE) lamented the lowering of the goddess Inanna's status below gods among the Sumerians. So, that gives a hint as to the timing of the elevation of male gods. Okay, back to music. I believe that art (including music) and "religion" were one thing to the primitives. They had no distinction between the two. So, I see music as an outlet of the spiritual expression that I/we exist as part of the universe, the Great Mother. The Great Mother was not above or outside the creation, she was part of it, a belief that would later be called Pantheism and be labled heretical. Again back to music. The music I like best has an element of "soul" to it, its roots ranging back to what I believe was the earliest music. And of course that early music included dance as @mahgister implied. |
@bigtwin , Good song. I've heard it done by a number of women but I like this one. I first saw Tom Scott and the L.A. Express at the Troubador in L.A. He was backing up Joni Mitchell. |
@audio-b-dog You be showing your age. 🤣 |
I have certain criteria that I love in music. If music does not have most or all of those criteria, I find it uninteresting, emotionally and/or intellectually. And it's not like I made a conscious decision to only like music that meet those criteria, it was an evolution over the years. As time passes, I become more and more intolerant of music that does not have those criteria. Even music by bands I used to love (Deep Purple, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk, Black Sabbath, The Beatles, etc) does almost nothing for me anymore. The genres that most often meet those criteria for me are: Jazz - post bop, fusion, avant-garde, chamber-jazz, M-Base Prog - avant-prog, Canterbury, symph-prog, Zeuhl, prog-metal Classical - avant-garde, serial, atonal, New Complexity, Spectralism, 12 tone |
I am so engulfed in new and amazing music it is hard to listen to relisten to anything. I just add to my library and go on...then find more. I loved Jazz, world, classical, rock, and electronic before streaming. So, often looking at new releases on Qobuz nets a great album just from the cover. While painting and listening to my headphone system I often listen to 1.fm Chllout Lounge, ON - Chillout Radio and Radio Paradise -Eclectric Mix FLAC. I get lost in these... the innovation of sounds and beats. My headphone system is magical and presents them in a warm natural and incredibly powerful way. I can listen for hours. |
I realized something the other day. I have always listened to music. I had a system but just no attention to details. Now I have mostly newer equipment and Qobuz. I hear things in songs that were a surprise to me. So many more details and better tone. I get lost in new stuff. Most styles I listen to are not new anymore. The other day I listened to Pat Metheny Bright Sized life. Him and Jaco, what a pair.i had not listened to that album for 30 years. Today I listened to Grateful Dead Europe 72. SUgar Magnolia. Most rocking and fun version I have hears. Just listening to Grateful Dead concerts took me awhile! I currently have 6000ish songs tagged. That is a pared down version that is 90% acceptable to most people. Qobuz helped me finish this up after 6 years. Enjoy the Music |
Is Monteverdi 8th book of madrigals, all Gesualdo and Josquin Des Prez are boring or correspond to your definition ? For me there is no relation between genius and chronological time ?
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I don’t think I can categorize the music I like. Similar to @Daledeee1, I have had a music system pretty much all my life. My first record player being given to me at around 10. I, too, now have Qobuz on a decent streamer that sounds better than a CD player because of the higher sampling resolution. I could only listen to new music, but some music has become the background of my life and I have to go back to it. It’s not songs, though. It’s albums. I could not make a list like @simonmoon of the musical attributes that appeal to me. Although I go to the L.A. Phil at Disney Hall and often hear new music. Sometimes I have purchased CDs of some new music I have heard and it becomes part of my collection, numbering about a thousand albums and a thousand CDs. Too much, I think. What are my comfort albums? I must hear Beethoven at least once a week. Usually several times a week. And Van Morrison is a regular on my turntable. I listened to a CD I haven’t played in many years. Szymanowski’s Symphonie Concertante. It sounded "experimental" enough (although probably a hundred years old) to be on @simonmoon’s list. Do you know this composer? I often play Sibelius, although he doesn’t have the complexity of Beethoven, but few composers do. I have been listening to a lot of jazz lately because I belong to the Jazz Aficianado forum. I’m listening to Coltrane’s "Crescent" now. Although I have the vinyl album, I was lazy and played it from Qobuz. Vinyl sounds better, but it’s kind of background music now. I was painting up until maybe three, four years ago. Larger canvases. Abstract colorfield. I used to play rock and dance as I painted. My back is not what it used to be and after a half hour, I had to quit painting. So, not worth it. But one of my top go-to groups was the Stones. Good dancing music. Also Robyn "Body Talk." Great dancing music. I write everyday (or at least aspire to) and mostly listen to jazz or classical music during the mornings. I know most pieces so well, they don’t distract me. Today I listened to Beethoven’s 6th Symphony. I have many versions of it. Years ago I picked up Bruno Walter’s version made around 1960 when he was 80. It might be the most popular version because he approaches the piece with such slow lyricism. Also at the top of the list for Beethoven’s 6th is Karl Bohm. I had to think hard about buying his album because he was an unapologetic Nazi, playing for Hitler. But then, so were a number of conductors whose albums I own. I can hardly listen to von Karajan anymore. His music seems to me like his photographs look: a poseur. Mitsuko Uchida has become my favorite classical pianist and I am posting the 2nd movement of the Schubert Impromptu 899. On this piece, I think she is most brilliant and her touch and nuance are absolutely alive. This is a stunning piece of music if you haven’t heard it. |
thanks to DSP audio restoration tools, there is a whole world of 78 RPM recordings waiting for the treatment and expectant ears to hear for the first time without all the noise. my most recent project is the June 1931 recording of George Gershwin at the piano leading a pickup orchestra of ace players performing the recorded debut of his Rhapsody for piano and orchestra, no. 2. this original version differs radically from just about all other versions available on the marketplace today. |
I heard the Dead play several times in places like the Fillmore Auditorium. If I remember correctly, Jefferson Airplane played with them a number of times. Also a group called Mother Earth, which I liked the best. They played country and R&B. Great band. One of my musical regrets is that I did not know that Janis Joplin was part of Big Brother. I didn't even know who she was until a few days before I left on my lengthy world trip. I wish I had seen her live. I'm posting an early Van Morrison song called "TB Sheets." Anybody who has a chance to listen to it, I'd be interested in how you would categorize it: rock, blues, R&B, jazz-rock? |
@audio-B-Dog
Most days, I'd take Sibelius. To me, many Beethoven's symphonies tend to be bombastic stop-start affairs whereas Sibelius mostly spins multiple continuous strands. I am particularly struck by the new Decca set from the then unknown Klaus Mikela and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Klaus seems to have spontaneously wandered down from the wilds of Finland. During Covid, he did nothing but rehearse the Sibelius symphonies with the Oslo orchestra. To me, the most significant thing is that he recorded the first symphony last. This symphony has often been regarded as derivative (of Tchaikovsky) but Klaus' opening is pure Sibelius magic
Sibelius tried to create internally cohesive pieces of music. He was horrified when Mahler said his own symphonies encompassed his whole life experience. But then Sibelius had the Finnish addiction to the bottle, to his wife's dismay |
TB Sheets is about a woman dying of TB and Van was very young when he wrote and recorded this song. I think he was 21. It is primarily a blues influenced song. Van certainly incorporates jazz, rock, blues and folk in his music, but TB Sheets is primarily blues infused. Powerfully emotional song that I have listened to for many decades. |
Sorry, but I can't do PMs. I worked with a support person, but it became complicated. I'm going to call back support and go through the ordeal of having my screen changed. Also, it's against the rules for me to share personal information with you. Can you upload one of your pieces so that you can post them here? TB sheets is absolutely a powerful song. I believe it must have influenced Van Morrison to write "Astral Weeks" which was a huge leap from previous rock n' roll. I'm posting an amazing recording of Patti Smith singing Van's "Gloria." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPO0bTaWcFQ I probably shouldn't have compared Sibelius to Beethoven. I have no shcolastic education in music. My knowledge all comes from listening to recordings and listening to live music. I heard Sibelius's First Symphony conducted by Esa Pekka Salonen live. It was quite an experience. Salonen I think captures the Finnish chill. It's not a bad thing. I've listened to Salonen live for years and have liked his superb control. I have many recordings of Sibelius's symphonies. The last set I bought was by Paavo Berglund. I have a record of Sibelius's Sixth conducted by Herbert von Karajan. I thought I didn't like the sixth until I heard it conducted by Dudamel (I think). Von Karajan killed it, and not in a good way. I will Qobuz Klaus Mikela and listen to his version of a few Sibelius symphonies. The Fifth is my favorite, but I've also gotten into his less dramatic symphonies, like the Third and Seventh. My guess is that his Second is the most popular. Sorry, I don't listen to Monteverdi. I think I heard one of his operas. I had opera tickets for 12 years but gave them up about 13 years ago. Monteverdi is a bit early for me. I've never developed a taste for music before Mozart, with the exception of Bach. Although, I do have several recordings of Albanani. And I am getting a bit more into Haydn. |
I listened to Klaus Mikela conduct Sibelius's 5th. It was excellent. He paced the first movement faster than I am used to but it worked really well. On all the movements his tempo did not vary to achieve dramatic effect. He reminded me of the reknown Carlos Kleiber whose Beethoven's 5th seems to be on the top of everybody's list. I will listen to more of Sibelius conducted by Mikela. @stuartk , I am working my way through your Bluegrass list. I liked Strength in Numbers, Sarah Jarosz, and Stray Birds. Their music is uplifting. I did not like Mick McCauley and Winifred Horan as much. Perhaps ironic that they're the classically trained musicians. Their music felt a bit pristine without enough rough edges. I didn't really answer your question about the correlation between genius and chronological time. When talking about art--all the arts--I don't really know what genius is. It's not exactly what I'm talking about. Certainly with all that Haydn accomplished, inventing the symphony, string quartet, etc., he could be considered a genius. The period he composed in, however, is not that interesting to me. It's a bit too refined. I like the emotionally charged Romantics and beyond. I am much more educated in writing, so I can talk a little more intelligently about it. After Shakespeare, English writers became boring for around 100 years. I've heard theories that Shakespeare was too intimidating to follow. Alexander Pope was a genius at rhyme and meter, but his poems are boring to me. And that pretty much holds through the 1700s until the Romantics begin with Wordsworth around 1800. Before I started painting, and realized I wanted to paint non-representationally, my wife and I would go on trips to various countries with interesting museums. In my mid-forties I felt myself pulled toward "abstract" non-representational paintings, and spent more time in modern-art museums. It wasn't that I couldn't appreciate earlier artists. They just didn't interest me as much. It's about taste for me, not the talent of the artists. More and more I am pulled toward modern classical music, Stravinsky, Bartok, Shostakovich, Corigliano, etc. I believe that Beethoven is the great genius of music, but often I want music closer to my time. |
A genius in art is someone who stay in our collective memory as a representative of his era.
The history of art is parallel and perpendicular to the story of science whose two are part of the history of consciousness which we can read in the history of language itself... See Owen Barfield : history in english words...
Monteverdi is a genius because he manifested his era on another level inventing opera ... I dont like many opera... I like madrigals a lot especially Gesualdo and the 8th book of Monteverdi...
Art is not about "taste" which are only an expression of our own personal biased history... Art is about some truth of an era and his link to universal truth... I recommend Jean Gebser masterpiece book about consciousness history " the ever present origin" ... If you dont fall out of your chair i will pay the book price...
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I heard music from infancy onward. I actually remember music as a very distinct feeling as far back as 2 yrs old. I have pictures of my twin brother and me sitting in our high chairs at dinner time. My mother was feeding us (food we immediately threw at each other) while my father played the record player and grooved. He typically played Duke Elllington, Count Basie or Woody Herman at dinner. Later on it was all classical. I was allowed to drop the needle on the big, fancy record player at age 5 or so (after having destroyed my own record player and records). At that age I loved practically every type of music I heard. For me there were no distinctions between (for example), Beethoven symphonies, John Philip Sousa marches, and the theme from the TV show, Dragnet. Pretty much all music made me swoon. It was always an otherworldly experience. My mind travelled far and wide whenever music was on. I didn’t know it until much later, but my music appreciation was greatly aided by a striking case of synesthesia: I perceived music not only as sound but also as colorful visual informaiton. I closed my eyes and saw ever expanding geometric and architectural shapes, quite specific to each piece of music. After that, the acid and mescaline trips years later seemed oddly familar. Very little changed over the years: music moves me intensely, as it always has. I learned a great deal about what I was hearing; was able to pursue deep explorations of classical and jazz. And within classical, my tastes are strongly tied to choral/liturgical music from any era; and modernity (dissonance is totally fine for me). And of course, chasing audio improvements has further aided my enjoyment of music. The day I stop caring a LOT about music is the day I leave this earth. |
@polkalover Dystopian futures sometimes enter my mind, I do see some of this coming to pass, perhaps all the golden ages may be in the past. Mindless drones aka technicolor rats aka people. Doesn't take much to satisfy the people if you set expectations low enough.
But then perhaps the above all a sad delusion, get out the welding goggles for the bright white of the future, this selling big time. |
I don't think that AI will be the end of good music or good art in general. The world has been flooded with dross in all the fields of art throughout history. As a writer working on a book for many years, I have to confront this fear almost daily. But most people have read formulaic beach reads from the beginning of mass-market publishing. You don't need AI to produce soulless music. It has been produced all my life. Even people under the most severe totalitarian regimes (which I think is more dangerous to truthful art) have written truths that threaten the overwhelming power of the state. If you have read the book or seen the movie "Farenhite 451," that is a great analogy about how small pockets of people seeking truth can keep the flame alive. Dystopian despair crushes the soul worse than anything else. |
I don't know if you've ever read Oliver Sachs. He was a British neurologist and writer who wrote about synesthesia and music. His book Musicophelia was about how music affects the mind. There was also a documentary about the book. A fascinating study. I, too, was interested in music at a young age, but what I found interesting was more age appropriate. Elvis Presley in 5th grade. I also went to Pacoima Jr. High, the school Ritchie Valens went to. He came to our auditorium to give a free concert for the students. I was mesmerized that anybody could be so good. I had never heard a professional before. I liked the top ten when I was in elementary school and middle school. I went to my next door neighbor's to hear their new console (I don't know if it was stereo or not) and they played popular orchestral music. I said, "You listen to music without words!" At that age, I had no idea how people could enjoy music without somebody singing. Our musical enjoyment changes over our lifetime, as does what we listen to music on. When I only had $500 to spend on an entire stereo, I believed it was the best stereo in the world. Same when I upgraded it with $500 speakers. I always believe I am listening to music produced as well as it can be. And for my ears, at that time in my life, it is true. |
There is no age appropriate music... There is only exposure,education, ears training... When a child i was going to Catholic masses and Vespers and ceremonies, I even worked as a boy altar... My mother and father were singing "Ave Maria Stella" as i was a baby, and i remind it clearly and i was 2 years old or 3 max, then i listened to choral music at the Radio before noon( very old french and english folk song or popular chorus songs). Then when all my friend listened Cream and Beatles and Hendrix, i was listening ,Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Josquin Des Prez, Jakob Obrecht, Purcell Anthems, and Bach etc... Training ears biases when a baby will determine your music journey... It was so strong conditioning, i discovered Jazz only at 35 years old...I decided it was not an inferior music style no more because i discovered music is done by musicians not written for singing by great past Masters... Already in my twenties, i listen Indian sitar... It becomes after my 35 years a passion for Indian and Persian music especially .,.. Today i listen to many world musical cultures... But the Choral music stay my all time favorite... I like Armenian and Persian songs ... Popular music has no real appeal to me save few poets exceptions (Dylan Cohen Baez, Ferré, partly because i was a "hippie" against war in the 70 etc )
Alas! if i can wrote a book about Bruckner symphonies describing them in metaphors i had no talent for music at all ...I was discarded from the Choral of boys because of my unability to sing correctly... I "see" music with my eyes and do not hear it a way a musician hear it... In my next life i want to play piano as Ervin Nyiregyházi playing Liszt... Or as Sofronitsky playing my god Scriabin... if not i did not come back here ...
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@desktopguy + 1 - I'll go with the whole package - I'm a mindless, technicolor drone rat! You're probably right about the gray, though.... |
@audio-b-dog, I know all about Oliver Sachs. Actually have a copy of Musicophelia; this is a good reminder to read it. I’ve also heard his lectures. I first became acqainted with him via the neurology connection: he was a well-known researcher in migraine medicine (I’ve had a wicked/continual case of that for the past 15 years). His writing on that topic are fascinating, indeed. The brain is a funny beast. Once it forms pleasure pathways (with music, sex, drugs, food--literally anything that can light up the pleasure center and pump those endorphins), it’s very hard to make it let go. And in the case of music, I don’t ever want that jones to stop. Your musical background is pretty interesting. Can’t believe you saw Richie Valens! No doubt we share some "age appropriate" music tastes. I left out a lot in my post (such things as Jimmy Hendrix, Jeff Beck, countless jazz & classical performances). @mahgister, I, too, was an alter boy and choir boy. My love of polyphony and liturgical music began with music in the church. I’ve been to Italy 3X and saw some stupendous churches and cathedrals there, as well as in the U.S. I have zero religiosity: all I want from religion are the buildings and the music. As for J.S. Bach, I could live on a diet of nothing but and die happy. I listen to his music ~12 hrs/day, every day. @larsman, that’s a good plan. If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth over-doing! |
I am a musical dunce when it comes to playing. My one claim to fame, however, is that I was chosen for senior chorus in 6th grade. I was a soprano (then). We sang "Inch Worm, Inch Worm, measuring the marigolds." I was raised in a secular household. We never went to services. I think that is why I was not biased against sacred music. I think Bach's Mass in B Minor comes straight from the heavens. Perhaps the best piece of music ever written. I had a chance to see it live in Disney Hall. We all sat down low because there were not enough people to fill the hall. Strange that so few people would want to hear such a beautiful piece of music. |
"Ah, Happy Brave New World..." Of course it will. Talent will remain to introduce yet new variances and 'hooks' that tip that domino in your cortex and light up the rest of the cranium. AI need's to learn and understand what Hope is...Why it's important that it never must be squelched in it's span with us. Music is part and parcel to that Hope.... |
