Thoughts about music
Woke up today at 9 to shower and get ready for medieval music class. Purposefully kept the computer off to avoid e-flurrying. Medieval music history class today, only class I have on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We spent it in the library learning about ancient Greek music theory. Apparently the Greeks saw music as a science to be studied, rather than how we view music as an art to be practiced. There is definitely a study of music theory (I should know, I'm majoring in it), but I think it's really cool how the Greeks, in their society where religion and science were the same thing, saw the art of music as a science. What they actually said was that the heavens created music, the musica mundana. Just like how when you have a glass of wine and you run your finger around the outside of the glass and it makes that high ringing sound, the heavens were a collection of crystal spheres, and these spheres rubbing created heavenly music bound by mathematical principles.
Sometime while walking through ancient Greece, Pythagoras heard a blacksmith hammering at a piece of iron, heard that 2 hammers were exactly an octave apart, and that upon examining the hammers, noticed that the higher-pitched hammer was exactly half the weight of the bigger hammer. This prompted him to define the series of pitches we use today according to mathematical ratios, thereby inventing the theory of scales and harmony.
It's interesting how the Greeks could believe that their mathematical system of music containing fifths and octaves, which are used in every other form of ethnic music in the world, exists because of the heavens. I could probably make some sort of snide comment about separation of church and state, but I'm not a political science kid. All I really can say about that is nobody stops to think about the world in that grand a scheme. It's either science OR religion. Who says God didn't invent mathematics? How do you prove that? I don't care. Music as a science can be studied for years and years and still not mastered, yet music as an art can be conveyed by someone with no formal training.
As a performer one has to learn to balance the emotion and the feel of someone who knows their instrument through muscle memory and subconscious thought, and the years and years of theory being piled on them. It should be pretty easy to see why some people shun formal training to proudly, because it's an institution, and like all institutions, you are expected to make some concessions to be part of the machine. The question is, as a performer, where does it end? I am learning about medieval and Renaissance choral music. How does learning how a bunch of guys in brown smocks sang help me at all? They didn't write music for the Hammond organ, they didn't chant any Bridgebuilders songs. The answer to that, is that music is music. It can sound different depending on who is writing it, and what is making the noise. But the beauty of music education is that any musical training, regardless of what it is, will make you a better musician. I could quit playing church organ tomorrow, take up the Indian tabla, and be a totally different church organ player in a month.
I'm basically getting at the idea that music is what links religious belief and logical science. I don't know what other concentration plays on the emotions so powerfully, but can be defined in terms of simple fractions and intervals.
In other words, you don't make out in the backseat listening to calculus problems being solved.
Sometime while walking through ancient Greece, Pythagoras heard a blacksmith hammering at a piece of iron, heard that 2 hammers were exactly an octave apart, and that upon examining the hammers, noticed that the higher-pitched hammer was exactly half the weight of the bigger hammer. This prompted him to define the series of pitches we use today according to mathematical ratios, thereby inventing the theory of scales and harmony.
It's interesting how the Greeks could believe that their mathematical system of music containing fifths and octaves, which are used in every other form of ethnic music in the world, exists because of the heavens. I could probably make some sort of snide comment about separation of church and state, but I'm not a political science kid. All I really can say about that is nobody stops to think about the world in that grand a scheme. It's either science OR religion. Who says God didn't invent mathematics? How do you prove that? I don't care. Music as a science can be studied for years and years and still not mastered, yet music as an art can be conveyed by someone with no formal training.
As a performer one has to learn to balance the emotion and the feel of someone who knows their instrument through muscle memory and subconscious thought, and the years and years of theory being piled on them. It should be pretty easy to see why some people shun formal training to proudly, because it's an institution, and like all institutions, you are expected to make some concessions to be part of the machine. The question is, as a performer, where does it end? I am learning about medieval and Renaissance choral music. How does learning how a bunch of guys in brown smocks sang help me at all? They didn't write music for the Hammond organ, they didn't chant any Bridgebuilders songs. The answer to that, is that music is music. It can sound different depending on who is writing it, and what is making the noise. But the beauty of music education is that any musical training, regardless of what it is, will make you a better musician. I could quit playing church organ tomorrow, take up the Indian tabla, and be a totally different church organ player in a month.
I'm basically getting at the idea that music is what links religious belief and logical science. I don't know what other concentration plays on the emotions so powerfully, but can be defined in terms of simple fractions and intervals.
In other words, you don't make out in the backseat listening to calculus problems being solved.