TIME FOR ANOTHER TEST (Oct-06-06)

[moved from old forum:]

"I've cooked it for a couple days now, and the rest of a week
probably won't help now.

Music is a program that willingly or unwittingly enters your
mind and takes over, you surrender your attention to its
experience.

It can be intellectual, emotional, physically motivating,
spiritual, thought clearing, etc., EVREYTHING that goes on in
"yourself" music expresses."

Are you sure it is just a program? If so do you see yourself as a computer made of soilent green?

"Soilent Green is People."

Bon apetit.

"I am reminded of the Tibettan Prayer-song of the Guardian.
And that is some serious Bald-head-bangin-Monk-Metal.

Brrrwaaaaaaa clang bang thunk thunk thunk clang
brwaaaaaaa....

So seemingly music can even chase the dead away from the
temple.

They use it to get ghosts to vacate certain premisses..really!"

"Music is the raw commanding of awareness."

THAT is brilliant!

-Ney

[moved from old forum:]

Josh ,

I apologize but I dont have enough time for such a long article
If you can do it in one paragraph or two.....

-Ney

[moved from old forum:]

Hi Ney,

Pfew ! Thank goodness it wasn't a product defect like you were saying.

Yeah, techy support people are like Doctors.

Somebody comes in with a caugh and they automatically assume it is the same thing the other 20 people that came in today have, and they just write the prescription and move on.

Auto-pilot.

Just the way it is, ESPECIALLY when Outsourced to off-shore resources.

No offense to anyone, but that is a general tendency for the way it works out no matter who or what country.

'You gotta fight
for your right
to party'

Doctors, lawyers, techy support people, the list is endless.

-Light Rock

[moved from old forum:]

I think of music as a language.

The main feature of the language of music is its capacity to evoke emotional responses in human beings --it is a language which speaks to our emotional faculties directly.

Another important characteristic is the universality of the musical language. There may be many dialects (genres and styles) but it is possible for one to feel connected to any of them even at the first exposure. No education is necessarily required.

Finally, the musical language is quite subjective. A particular rendition of a particular piece of music may evoke different emotional responses in different people.

* * *

In the context of the above, an artist then is one who is fluent in speaking the musical language. He can express his emotions, his ideas, and his perspectives through this language thus creating original music with its own unique identity. He is one who is 'saying something' through the music he creates.

Apurva

[moved from old forum:]

Hey everyone,
In thinking about this question, and forgive me if you think this is presumptuous, I was wondering if a distinction should be made between good music and bad music. Of course, music is subjective and there is no general definition of good or bad music, but I think each person none the less has their own idea of good and bad, they know what it is when they hear it even though they can't define it.

I think it was Louis Armsrong who said there are two kinds of music, good and bad. I've read and enjoied all the posts on this thread, and I think they are all insightful with their own meaning, but I (thankfully) don't think they define music like Brittany Spears, the Backstreet Boys, or some of the other terrible, chart topping pop stuff out there. None the less, and some might argue with me about this, I do think that what Brittany Spears does is music, it's just not good music.

So, I'm prone to give a basic textbook answer to the general question of 'what is music.' It's sound and silence organized in time. But to say what is good music, the kind of music that moves you to the depth of your being, is a different question, and one that is much harder to answer. I think this is the question we have all been trying to answer.

Having said that, here is my attempt to answer the question. I think good music is honest. It is a phenonmenon that comes about when a person has an honest interplay between the various parts of himself/herself that are involved in making music. The musician must hear the insperation from the deepest parts of himself, and hear it open mindedly, then honestly translate it to his conscious mind, and then his instrument. Musicians have to be honest about what they like, what they are going for, and stay honest while bringing that vision into reality. So good music is straight, uncontrived, an honest and truthful vision of a person's soul at a certain point in time.

-DrewAire

[moved from old forum:]

Music is what it desires to be, that's what it is.
What you make of it is a seperate question.

Ultimately everything, and I mean everything is God (insert preffered label here), so in a sense music is God, but God is also what is not, so music is also not God. Therefore, music is God, only not.

Confused? Stick around, I could make it more confusing, or not.

Robert

[moved from old forum:]

"I think of music as a language.

The main feature of the language of music is its capacity to
evoke emotional responses in human beings --it is a language
which speaks to our emotional faculties directly.

Another important characteristic is the universality of the
musical language. There may be many dialects (genres and
styles) but it is possible for one to feel connected to any of
them even at the first exposure. No education is necessarily
required.

Finally, the musical language is quite subjective. A
particular rendition of a particular piece of music may evoke
different emotional responses in different people.

In the context of the above, an artist then is one who is
fluent in speaking the musical language. He can express his
emotions, his ideas, and his perspectives through this
language thus creating original music with its own unique
identity. He is one who is 'saying something' through the
music he creates."


I know many share that view. Nevertheless I would ask you this: Do you think it would be accurate to describe you solely as a language just because you can speak one or many? Or are much more than the languages you speak?

My experience is tha music is much more than a language...But that realization is not obtainable by the unaided genius of intellect. You could say a given style is a given language through which it speaks to the universe.

-Ney

[moved from old forum:]

"In thinking about this question, and forgive me if you think
this is presumptuous, I was wondering if a distinction should
be made between good music and bad music. Of course, music is
subjective and there is no general definition of good or bad
music, but I think each person none the less has their own
idea of good and bad, they know what it is when they hear it
even though they can't define it."


That is personal taste.


"I think it was Louis Armsrong who said there are two kinds of
music, good and bad. I've read and enjoied all the posts on
this thread, and I think they are all insightful with their
own meaning, but I (thankfully) don't think they define music
like Brittany Spears, the Backstreet Boys, or some of the
other terrible, chart topping pop stuff out there. None the
less, and some might argue with me about this, I do think that
what Brittany Spears does is music, it's just not good music."


Personal taste will not affect the definition and can be left safely out of the answer..
I chose not to generalize so much specially since I love one of Britney's awesomely produced and performed dance hits " Im a slave 4U". Music is very mysterious and it can chose anyone as its vessel.


"So, I'm prone to give a basic textbook answer to the general
question of 'what is music.' It's sound and silence organized
in time."

Yet You could say the same while defining yourself ...would that be accurate?


"But to say what is good music, the kind of music that
moves you to the depth of your being, is a different question,
and one that is much harder to answer. I think this is the
question we have all been trying to answer."


There is only music. it will move you according to your current state of being. You have to know what Louis Aremstrong meant by "good' or "bad" . He meant it as true or not true. Trully felt or not trully felt. There are many who dont like it because they dont have taste for it. That does not make it "bad"




"Having said that, here is my attempt to answer the question. I
think good music is honest.
It is a phenonmenon that comes
about when a person has an honest interplay between the
various parts of himself/herself that are involved in making
music. The musician must hear the insperation from the deepest
parts of himself, and hear it open mindedly, then honestly
translate it to his conscious mind, and then his instrument.
Musicians have to be honest about what they like, what they
are going for, and stay honest while bringing that vision into
reality. So good music is straight, uncontrived, an honest and
truthful vision of a person's soul at a certain point in time."



If you leave personal prefferences and value jugements as to style and manner of execution and presentation out you will have a clearer experience .

The question is not about describing anyone's taste or preferences.

-Ney

[moved from old forum:]

>Music is what it desires to be, that's what it is.
>What you make of it is a seperate question.


That is true but many things are what they desire to be and are not music.


>
>Ultimately everything, and I mean everything is God (insert
>preffered label here), so in a sense music is God, but God is
>also what is not, so music is also not God. Therefore, music
>is God, only not.
>
>Confused? Stick around, I could make it more confusing, or
>not.
>
>

Turn off your reasoning intellect for a second and try to experience music directly and let it BE. Then just report what you feel.,,not just what effect music has on you but what you feel it is when you are it.

-Ney

[moved from old forum:]

OK, I was being too smart.

At the risk of sounding crazy what I have experienced lately is the so called Divine Inner Being. Words are just a poor attempt to convey the experience and you cannot use intellect about it anyway. It is pure feeling. It is with the mind still and silent, you could say you subdue the ego for a little while.

Listening to my favorite songs and artists can produce the exact same feeling.

So my truth is music is the Divine. An aspect of the Devine that can only be felt. Words do no good to describe it. Good music leaves you feeling all the descriptive words for "good stuff". But that doesn't apply to every song ever sung, not to me personaly, some of it sucks, so I don't think that is real music. Real music sounds and feels alive. Like others have mentioned before.

Robert