Klarinet Archive - Posting 000783.txt from 2002/05

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] A Colour Symphony op. 24
Date: Thu, 30 May 2002 02:58:43 -0400

On Wed, 29 May 2002 09:23:25 -0700 (PDT), w7wright@-----.net said:

> Mark Gustavson wrote:
>
> when the extramusical explanations disappear from one's experience of
> music, then the music becomes more transparent and the experience more
> profound.

[snip of description of listening to some music]

> The question is: would I profit or lose if music didn't deliver these
> feelings to me? It's easy to say "Neither, we're just different."
> However I suspect that, deep down, many of us would like to reply:
> "That's the courteous thing to say, but really and truly, you're missing
> the whole point of music....."

He didn't say 'feelings', he said 'extramusical explanations', by which
I take him to mean the association of sound with colour, and so on.

A simple association of this type doesn't do any explanatory work. Two
unexplained things holding hands are no more explicable than one
unexplained thing standing by itself.

The simultaneous expressing of a whole set of abstractions, which is one
way of saying what music achieves, is something different.

With regard to the other matter, namely your "castles and actions":
sometimes with students it's possible to get them to begin to be in
touch with some of these abstractions by asking them as to reverse the
procedure of the film composer, and imagine a film clip to put to the
music.

Because in order to do that, they have to ask themselves *something
about the music in isolation*, and then create the film clip on that
basis.

You can see that it's the act of asking themselves about the music
that's important in this process, not the answer they come up with.
There are many answers, none of them 'right'.

Now, if as a listener you always like to create a multimedia experience,
for yourself, that's OK, of course. But it's a bit presumptuous to
claim that that's 'the whole point of music'.

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
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