Sound is something that seems quite mystical to me, mystical in the way that physics and astronomy are. Religion and science sometimes seem to be against each other, but actually a lot of the time religion preempts science and shows that our instinct generally points us in the right direction. For example, Buddhism tell us that 'the world is sound' which although might seem very philosophical and scientifically wooly on one hand, on the other hand currently the majority of theoretical physicists are telling us that matter can be explained by 'string theory' which has definite parallels to sound.
So I find sound mystical. I also find it uplifting depending on the sound. I don't think anyone could disagree that music has the potential to stir emotion. Have you ever wondered why that is? Music is fairly quantifiable and certainly repeatable, so imagine the possibility that emotion can be triggered by a rational set of scientific theories based on waveform interaction! Exciting, huh? Of course, emotion is more complicated than a chart of numbers, but I still find it amazing how the sound of music can cause such fast emotional responses. Mood might effect our perception of music, but by the same token perceiving music can affect mood too. The Hindu notion of Om is a good historical example of sound being recognised as important to health and spirituality. I think its important to accept sound as something that is very important to our being, and not to take it for granted (or put a premium on it!).
Finally I find sound fascinating. I'm very interested in how to make and break sounds, and how our perceptions are related to the physical world. I suppose my work is about trying to understand the world I inhabit. I want to understand and manipulate perception. I believe that by altering and exploring perception people can understand themselves a bit better, and also empathise with other peoples thoughts and states of mind better, which is a good thing. Induvindualism is good, but if our impact on this planet is to be improved then we need to get to grips with the fact that we are in it together. Ghandi said "we must become the change we want to see" and a great friend of mine said "dont shit in the bath". Take from that what you will and discard the chaff.
Chili Breakz was here !!!
ReplyDeleteNSB crew
Nice rambles!
ReplyDeletewho the hell is joseph bell?
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about sound.
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ReplyDelete(sorry, I misspelled, etc.; one more time!)
ReplyDeleteHey, jb, it's Hammerklavier from Freesounds (Mark). This isn't a Forum, so I'm not supposed to write a long response, but, well, I guess I will anyway. (Mea culpa!) It still won't cover what you're sharing!
Suzanne Langer, a famous aesthetician, wrote something like "Music is feeling put into form". (Not verbatim, but you get the point.) She said that a melody's shape actually captures the 'shape' of our emotions, that if we could put our emotions into tactile form—it would be music. So your thoughts about music capturing emotion are essential. I think I wrote in the Freesounds post (where you contributed) that music is a Rosetta Stone of our inner-lives. Well, ALL the arts are Rosetta Stones of our inner-lives, each art being one side, one 'translation'. But music seems so very close to the subtle movements, etchings, shiftings, etc. of our inner thoughts & feelings; and maybe the reason music feels so intimate is that it touches all those things automatically. The sum total of all the music on this earth is like a vast archive of what we have inside us, what we feel, what we perceive, what we think; and it's archived in tiny analogues, tiny etchings that parallel every single flow and nuance within us. That's a Langer-like vision (credit to her), and it's just another way of saying what you've said.
As for Om, well I'll repeat something I said elsewhere too: The yogis conceive Om as 3 syllables: AH, OOO, & MMM. And if you look at where they're formed in the mouth, they start in the throat (ah being the inception of sound, the "initial utterance"), they move through the mouth cavity (ooo), and end in the lips (mmm). Sounds all very neat, I realize, but to the yogis, it's a symbol of Creation to Dissolution, or beginning-middle-and-end. And they truly believed if you repeated that utterance enough times in a lifetime, it would—by sheer association (!)—bring you to a state of completeness as well. So even these ancient traditions, as you say, understood that sound was at the core of our whole existence.
Well, this is just a comment and it's gonna take up half of England's bandwidth, so I have to stop; but I'm just affirming at least two of your points. I'll look forward to more---I know this is a passion of yours. And it's splendid that, while you do professional sound-production, you still have all this vision and sense of deeper connections. (The mixing console hasn't numbed you!) I agree, sound & music can bring people together; and we're just starting to pursue that. Hope this is a step in the right direction!
All good things! M.