What Is Music?
I guess we all feel the need at times to withdraw from our daily routines and escape from our every day surroundings. Take a step back, recollect our thoughts, get a clearer sense of purpose and become inspired. So it is that viseMènn retreated to the honorable Sola Beach Hotel, situated right next to the soothing waves of the beautiful Sola beach outside of Stavanger, the oil capital of Norway.
December is the darkest time of the year in the northern hemisphere and it would have made winter even longer and colder had it not been for Christmas and all it’s lights. The city of Stavanger had been lit in every color imaginable and was glowing like a star in the sky, drawing us into a peaceful dream state.
The Norwegian species are not known for being overly social and especially during winter they tend to keep to themselves, hiding in their sturdy houses. At Christmas however, it is different. The hotel, known for it’s excellent food, was full of merry Northlings feasting with friends, colleagues and family.
The delicious scents of age-long traditional courses brought us right back to our Norwegian roots and lulled us into childhood memories. Dreaming our way through the night, well rested and bellies full, we were ready to start our mental journey the following morning.
Introduction to Philosophy
In the course “Introduction To Philosophy” from The University of Edinburgh, Dr. Dave Ward proposed that Philosophy is the act of “trying to find the right way to be thinking about things”.
For example, the underlying principle of medieval medicine stated that within every individual there were four humours, or principal fluids – black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood, these were produced by various organs in the body, and they had to be in balance for a person to remain healthy.
Too much phlegm in the body, for example, caused lung problems; and the body tried to cough up the phlegm to restore a balance. The balance of humours in humans could be achieved by diet, medicines, and by blood-letting.
Today, there is a common understanding that this is in fact not the right way to be thinking about medicine. Huge progress have been made by changing the mindset and thinking about medicine in a different way.
So what is the right way to be thinking about music? That is one of the questions we were asking ourselves at the viseMènn retreat this autumn.
What is music?
Firstly we have to begin by asking ourselves what music actually is? Some proposed that music is sound. But thinking about it we can still experience music without there actually being sound. Surely we have all been trying to get rid of a tune that is stuck on our mind long after the sound itself has vanished. And Beethoven composed many of his works after he had lost his hearing and become deaf. So music, like words, can be thoughts existing in our minds.
It was proposed that music is a language. It is able to express what words cannot. It is better at communicating feelings. It is a more direct and spontaneous language.
Then the problem arise, like with all languages. What is it that you are trying to communicate? What is it that you are actually saying? Is it the words you are speaking or is it that which you are actually trying to say?
Are the words just a crude approximation to what you are trying to express? And is the sound just a crude approximation to the music itself?
The right way to be thinking about music? Could it be that it has not so much to do with the sounds you are making as with the urge of expression and it’s arousal?
Then there is the question of communication. An urge to share that which you are experiencing. Be it a broken heart, happiness, suppression or liberation. “I am a human being and this is what I am experiencing.”
As awareness of that which you are trying to express grows, so does the helplessness in expressing it, and there seems to be no means of communication that can carry the experience itself. Inescapably it will become prone to interpretation by the receiver.
Still the experience is there, and as limited as sound may be, it will have to carry the music across so that it may blossom with whomever it is received.
Well, that’s more than enough of babbling from me…
I am eager to hear what you have to say. What is music to you?
Please let us know in the comments below.
I admit I’ve not thought philosophically about music though I have long enjoyed it, listened to it and tried to play it.
I tried writing songs for a time, mostly just writing lyrics and creating the tune in my mind and vocalizing it.
I enjoy a lot of music but not all of it. I like some songs of almost every genre except rap and I’ve never really listened to or experienced opera.
I learned from the music my parents listened to then started choosing what I liked.
Survivor, Tanya Tucker, Loverboy, Europe, Jewel, Johnny Cash, Paul Robeson, Selena, the Star Wars soundtrack and others are among my favourites
Thanks Patrick. Cool:)
Interesting question.
The famous Norwegian musician Ragin Wenk-Wolff says:”Music is a visual experience and visual art is a musical experience.”
I think the picture in the headline illustrates the
same.
That makes sense Halfdan. Thanks!
I have often experienced that music is a way to express or communicate feelings and state of mind that would be impossible with only words.