Music, for me, serves a few purposes: entertainment, energy for work, relaxation. It can also provide me with familiar voice and instrumentation and can be comforting that way. My deepest need that music serves, however, is spiritual. And the best music to fill that need for me, hands down, is classical. Hearing Mary's mourning in Requiem (Mozart) is a yearning call. The simple, resonant baseline of Cannon in D (much better than Cannon in D-flat, or, worse yet, C-sharp--see? I amuse myself), captures me. The choral effusion in Ode to Joy is exhilirating.
It's interesting, classical music for me is primarily about the spiritual, about seeking peace, comfort, englightenment, and, most importantly, deep, pensive reflection. It's not that way for everyone.
So here's my question:
Why do you listen to music?
Note to the reader: this is the interactive moment where I hope to learn something from you. While I'm reasonably intuitive, I have a hard time intuiting everyone's thoughts about everything. So, unless you post a comment here, I don't know if I'm going to gain much from my question. Since I post the question to learn, that would defeat the purpose. I realize I have no readers, but even they, surely, have comments. Thank you.
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The musings and mental meanderings of a stranger in a strange land, a hermit in a hovel. The ongoing saga in the wake of my consummated petition to refind Bierbeekstraat and subsequent vow never to get lost again. Sum, ergo cogito.
9 comments:
Music satisfies many different needs for me, depending on what music and why I turned it on.
How's that for an unsatisfying answer?
--your younger brother, aka your nonexistant reader
Ok, here's the real answer:
Sometimes I just want to dance with Chuckwalla. We have some music that makes us all get movin'. And sometimes I'm really pensive and I want something like Borodin that turns me inside. Sometimes I'm in the mood for something grand and emotional and passionate, so I listen to Brahms or Schubert or Grieg. There are other music[s] and other uses, and with a few exceptions they all satisfy or enhance spiritual feelings for me.
I appreciate those comments. Neat. I definitely have a non-spiritual dimension to music, but no non-emotional ones that I can think of off-hand. I met a guy who created a band based on gimmics, such as extremely complex rhytms, which he called "thinking music" and admitted that it wasn't pleasurable to listen to. My reaction was, "What's the point?" That reveals something of my mindset.
I like music that energizes me and gets me moving. But much of that music provides me with little or no spiritual benefit.
I listen to music because I want to be energized and get moving or because I want to set a tone of quiet reverence or because I want to sing. I don't typically like music without words because I can't interact with it. Only listen. Songs with words can be sung. I almost always feel more emotion from the words of a song than I do the music itself. Which is why I like to sing along.
Interesting. That sounds right to me (about you). I see that. To me, the music is more powerful generally (but not always). The more lyrical the music, the more it appeals. I like Italian opera, for example, when I understand only a few words.
We have met before, haven't we?
I listen to music for reasons similar to those listed already, and, in addition to those, I have to admit that music can be, and often is, purely social for me. There are LOTS of songs that I love and sing out loud to that I never would have appreciated if it weren't for the fact that I loved and sang them with my friends. And that hasn't changed, even with the realization. I'm pretty sure that if people I spend time with socially were to choose a random (and not inappropriate) song for us to love, I would love it. And there is almost no limit to the type of music that I listen to.
I really like music to get my groove on.
Or to set some sort of tone, whether spiritual, fun, introspective, etc.
Good thoughts. I do associate certain songs with certain people and events, which gives them more meaning. In fact, some songs I otherwise dislike, I appreciate because of the historical value.
Also, I have to agree that some songs are fun to sing to--I like the Beach Boys largely for this reason. The music without the singing would be one tenth the experience.
To me, music is for dancing to, singing with, remember things, inspiring minds, soothing spirits, voicing angst, and confusing the clear.
I like all but the last use.
Well put. (Obviously I'm behaving as though I need to have the "Last Word" on everything.) That's a nice list and there's consistency in what everyone has said.
I can't picture a decent world without it. Sometimes a hymn does more to bring the Spirit than 10,000 words. (A hymn is worth 10,000 words?) I can remember a time when "I Need Thee Every Hour" reached the hearts of 15 men in a way nothing else could. Real power.
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