User:FloraC/Fundamental principles to musical sense: Difference between revisions

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We have seen that the major concern is how one decides to control the music pieces. Some modernist composers valued it so much and even acted such that full control of their musical materials is an achievement to be very proud of. However, such impression of controlling may well be but an illusion. What is the subject that controls? What causes the piece to be what it is? The truth is in musical feelings.

Musical feelings are feelings invoked from an understanding of musical experience, which are fundamentally musical with no verbal counterparts in any existing natural language. For example, experiences of the major key and of the minor key invoke feelings distinct from each other. One may be tempted to signify those feelings by "majorness" and "minorness", respectively. Unfortunately, that not only misses the point but also stereotypes them with oversimplified invoking sources. The necessity to verbalize musical feelings should really never be found, as beautifully put by Felix Mendelssohn, ~~"the~~ music fills the soul with a thousand things better than words"<ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50473/50473-h/50473-h.htm#page_298 "To Marc-André Souchay, Lübeck. Berlin, October 15th, 1842", ''Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from 1833 to 1847''], Project Gutenberg. And thanks to [https://youtu.be/K14l_81Sl0c Adam Neely's classic demonstration] on this. </ref>.

Musical feelings are feelings invoked from an understanding of musical experience, which are fundamentally musical with no verbal counterparts in any existing natural language. For example, experiences of the major key and of the minor key invoke feelings distinct from each other. One may be tempted to signify those feelings by "majorness" and "minorness", respectively. Unfortunately, that not only misses the point but also stereotypes them with oversimplified invoking sources. The necessity to verbalize musical feelings should really never be found, as beautifully put by Felix Mendelssohn,

<blockquote>The music fills the soul with a thousand things better than words.<ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50473/50473-h/50473-h.htm#page_298 "To Marc-André Souchay, Lübeck. Berlin, October 15th, 1842", ''Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from 1833 to 1847''], Project Gutenberg. And thanks to [https://youtu.be/K14l_81Sl0c Adam Neely's classic demonstration] on this. </ref></blockquote>

So why would one feel like composing in the first place? It is important to point out that musical feelings lie just in the composer's conscious mind. As one sets out to compose, the musical feelings emerge and flow with tremendous driving force like a defrosting river. As a necessary consequence, the exposition of the composer's conscious mind, or an exposition of controlling if we will call it, entails shaping music following musical feelings. That is exactly where the maximum of musical sense consists.

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Another mode quite harmful to musical sense is to take certain instances of homo sapiens as the projected audience. Hence they worry about the audience not taking the opportunity to hear all the subtleties in their works. In fact, the audience is a historical being, whereas music is "absolute sonic phenomena", said Kyle Gann<ref>[https://www.kylegann.com/JIreasons.html ''My Idiosyncratic Reasons for Using Just Intonation''], Kyle Gann. This is not to imply I agree with anything else in the article. </ref>, and musical sense does not depend on the very presence of audience. Au contraire, it does harm to shy away from what we presume the audience cannot grasp. Most materials, techniques and cultural gestures demand certain level of knowledge or training, and it is fine. Their nominativity is evidence of their feasibility. A composer sticking to musical sense always remains faithful with the audience.

Therefore, the only hard limit of musical sense is our mental capacity. In ''the Matrix'', the Oracle said to Neo, "We can never see past the choices we don't understand."

Therefore, the only hard limit of musical sense is our mental capacity. In ''the Matrix'', the Oracle said to Neo,

<blockquote>We can never see past the choices we don't understand.</blockquote>

== Chapter III: What Music Is Not ==

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== Chapter IV: Absolute Music vs Programmatic Music ==

The way I categorize absolute music and programmatic music is different from how many others do. For example, Beethoven's ''Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"'' is absolute music to me, even though it has a title. A title is not equivalent to a programme. It often serves a mnemonic purpose more than anything else. In this case the title is not much different from the dedication, wherein he stated: ~~"heroic~~ symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man."

The way I categorize absolute music and programmatic music is different from how many others do. For example, Beethoven's ''Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"'' is absolute music to me, even though it has a title. A title is not equivalent to a programme. It often serves a mnemonic purpose more than anything else. In this case the title is not much different from the dedication, wherein he stated:

<blockquote>Heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.</blockquote>

''Symphony No. 9'', on the other hand, ''is'' programmatic music. This is not because it is a choral symphony, but because – in the piece – the baritone would sing:

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 We have seen that the major concern is how one decides to control the music pieces. Some modernist composers valued it so much and even acted such that full control of their musical materials is an achievement to be very proud of. However, such impression of controlling may well be but an illusion. What is the subject that controls? What causes the piece to be what it is? The truth is in musical feelings.
-Musical feelings are feelings invoked from an understanding of musical experience, which are fundamentally musical with no verbal counterparts in any existing natural language. For example, experiences of the major key and of the minor key invoke feelings distinct from each other. One may be tempted to signify those feelings by "majorness" and "minorness", respectively. Unfortunately, that not only misses the point but also stereotypes them with oversimplified invoking sources. The necessity to verbalize musical feelings should really never be found, as beautifully put by Felix Mendelssohn, "the music fills the soul with a thousand things better than words"<ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50473/50473-h/50473-h.htm#page_298 "To Marc-André Souchay, Lübeck. Berlin, October 15th, 1842", ''Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from 1833 to 1847''], Project Gutenberg. And thanks to [https://youtu.be/K14l_81Sl0c Adam Neely's classic demonstration] on this. </ref>.
+Musical feelings are feelings invoked from an understanding of musical experience, which are fundamentally musical with no verbal counterparts in any existing natural language. For example, experiences of the major key and of the minor key invoke feelings distinct from each other. One may be tempted to signify those feelings by "majorness" and "minorness", respectively. Unfortunately, that not only misses the point but also stereotypes them with oversimplified invoking sources. The necessity to verbalize musical feelings should really never be found, as beautifully put by Felix Mendelssohn,
+<blockquote>The music fills the soul with a thousand things better than words.<ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50473/50473-h/50473-h.htm#page_298 "To Marc-André Souchay, Lübeck. Berlin, October 15th, 1842", ''Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from 1833 to 1847''], Project Gutenberg. And thanks to [https://youtu.be/K14l_81Sl0c Adam Neely's classic demonstration] on this. </ref></blockquote>
 So why would one feel like composing in the first place? It is important to point out that musical feelings lie just in the composer's conscious mind. As one sets out to compose, the musical feelings emerge and flow with tremendous driving force like a defrosting river. As a necessary consequence, the exposition of the composer's conscious mind, or an exposition of controlling if we will call it, entails shaping music following musical feelings. That is exactly where the maximum of musical sense consists.
@@ Line 25: / Line 27: @@
 Another mode quite harmful to musical sense is to take certain instances of homo sapiens as the projected audience. Hence they worry about the audience not taking the opportunity to hear all the subtleties in their works. In fact, the audience is a historical being, whereas music is "absolute sonic phenomena", said Kyle Gann<ref>[https://www.kylegann.com/JIreasons.html ''My Idiosyncratic Reasons for Using Just Intonation''], Kyle Gann. This is not to imply I agree with anything else in the article. </ref>, and musical sense does not depend on the very presence of audience. Au contraire, it does harm to shy away from what we presume the audience cannot grasp. Most materials, techniques and cultural gestures demand certain level of knowledge or training, and it is fine. Their nominativity is evidence of their feasibility. A composer sticking to musical sense always remains faithful with the audience.
-Therefore, the only hard limit of musical sense is our mental capacity. In ''the Matrix'', the Oracle said to Neo, "We can never see past the choices we don't understand."
+Therefore, the only hard limit of musical sense is our mental capacity. In ''the Matrix'', the Oracle said to Neo,
+<blockquote>We can never see past the choices we don't understand.</blockquote>
 == Chapter III: What Music Is Not ==
@@ Line 49: / Line 53: @@
 == Chapter IV: Absolute Music vs Programmatic Music ==
-The way I categorize absolute music and programmatic music is different from how many others do. For example, Beethoven's ''Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"'' is absolute music to me, even though it has a title. A title is not equivalent to a programme. It often serves a mnemonic purpose more than anything else. In this case the title is not much different from the dedication, wherein he stated: "heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man."
+The way I categorize absolute music and programmatic music is different from how many others do. For example, Beethoven's ''Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"'' is absolute music to me, even though it has a title. A title is not equivalent to a programme. It often serves a mnemonic purpose more than anything else. In this case the title is not much different from the dedication, wherein he stated:
+<blockquote>Heroic symphony, composed to celebrate the memory of a great man.</blockquote>
 ''Symphony No. 9'', on the other hand, ''is'' programmatic music. This is not because it is a choral symphony, but because – in the piece – the baritone would sing: