Quote of the Week II
My favourite quote ever: "Without music, life would be a serious mistake" - Friedrich Nietzsche.
To me, that just sums it up. If i don't play music for a while, I get achingly depressed, and I start pondering what got me into the low state. It's not until I pick up the guitar again, or sit at the piano, that I realise what the problem was - a lack of music. Sometimes I can get a similar experience listening to music, but it's not nearly as common, there's nothing quite like making the sound yourself, being an active participant in the process of sound creation.
What is it about music that makes it so special? Well, first of all, not all music has this transcedental effect, in fact, some music does the opposite. Like most things, like food, sport, art, socialising or even life itself, music at its best is phenomenal, but at its worst its horrid. I'd like to ignore this crud, this "music", though, because although there's a heap of it, there's plenty of great music to keep us busy.
And what makes great music? Isn't it just completely subjective? No doubt there's an element of subjectivity involved, so much so that it's impossible to pinpoint what "great music" is. Maybe you hear a song once and think it's unbelievable, it takes your mind to a higher place. Someone else hears it, and think nothing of it. Can it be considered great music? A couple of years later, you hear the same song yet it has no effect on you whatsoever, apart from a bit of nosatalgia perhaps. Was it ever great music? I answer yes to both these questions. Beauty, sometimes, is in the eye of the beholder. But that's not to say that it's not beauty.
I think the best way to describe great music is to quote Louis Armstrong - "if you gotta ask [what jazz is], you'll never know". I might have got the quote a bit wrong, but you get the drift - great music hits you. If you find yourself asking "is this really great music?" then you can rest assured that it's not. This is clearly a mammoth philosophical topic, and I've sidetracked from the original question: what makes music so special? The best answer is this: if you have to ask, you'll never know.
Note: I've also seen the quote translated as "Without music, life is meaningless", and "Without music, life would be a mistake". Neither of these quite have the punch of the first, though. The word "meaningless" implies a waste of time, implies that something is missing. And mistakes happen all the time. But a serious mistake, that implies agony, that implies active suffering.
To me, that just sums it up. If i don't play music for a while, I get achingly depressed, and I start pondering what got me into the low state. It's not until I pick up the guitar again, or sit at the piano, that I realise what the problem was - a lack of music. Sometimes I can get a similar experience listening to music, but it's not nearly as common, there's nothing quite like making the sound yourself, being an active participant in the process of sound creation.
What is it about music that makes it so special? Well, first of all, not all music has this transcedental effect, in fact, some music does the opposite. Like most things, like food, sport, art, socialising or even life itself, music at its best is phenomenal, but at its worst its horrid. I'd like to ignore this crud, this "music", though, because although there's a heap of it, there's plenty of great music to keep us busy.
And what makes great music? Isn't it just completely subjective? No doubt there's an element of subjectivity involved, so much so that it's impossible to pinpoint what "great music" is. Maybe you hear a song once and think it's unbelievable, it takes your mind to a higher place. Someone else hears it, and think nothing of it. Can it be considered great music? A couple of years later, you hear the same song yet it has no effect on you whatsoever, apart from a bit of nosatalgia perhaps. Was it ever great music? I answer yes to both these questions. Beauty, sometimes, is in the eye of the beholder. But that's not to say that it's not beauty.
I think the best way to describe great music is to quote Louis Armstrong - "if you gotta ask [what jazz is], you'll never know". I might have got the quote a bit wrong, but you get the drift - great music hits you. If you find yourself asking "is this really great music?" then you can rest assured that it's not. This is clearly a mammoth philosophical topic, and I've sidetracked from the original question: what makes music so special? The best answer is this: if you have to ask, you'll never know.
Note: I've also seen the quote translated as "Without music, life is meaningless", and "Without music, life would be a mistake". Neither of these quite have the punch of the first, though. The word "meaningless" implies a waste of time, implies that something is missing. And mistakes happen all the time. But a serious mistake, that implies agony, that implies active suffering.
posted by Banana Mango at 6/07/2005 11:16:00 pm
2 Comments:
Like i said YOU ARE AN EJIT
Basketball to me is like music to you
Post a Comment
<< Home