music, not so very universal
Oct. 24th, 2006 04:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI read a thing someone linked to that said in passing "music is universal", and reckoned that everyone hearing the same bit of music would read it the same way (nobility of human spirit or something, in that case).
I've been listening to more classical music lately, because the guy that drives me to college listens to it, and what I have learned is I've completely forgotten how to read the stuff. Or, okay, maybe not completely. I can start by figuring out what bit of a movie it would go with, though I often get sort of contradictory ideas. But that right there is why I question that 'universal' bit. Music, like any other text, is part of the web of associations, connotations, built up through and between all the texts of our lives. You can't just pull out one bit of music and say 'this means this'.
If music was universal I could listen to chinese music and hear whatever the makers thought it meant, instead of just hearing it and going 'huh, plinky music on a funny scale, weird'.
I guess that maybe some things - like slow or fast, or loud or quiet, or something - would translate as less/more excited or whatever, but I think the specifics are very local.
Not that I've studied music. I heard a talk about the music in Angel once and it made a lot of sense. If a TV show has different themes for different characters I listen for that now, a bit. But still mostly I'll ignore the music unless it has words.
Which, also because I often have the sound off and the subtitles on, but that's just me.
Music I listen to on my own is usually from TV or films or conventions. Connotations, connections, why *I* want to hear that music, not just what that music means in some weirdly unconnected way.
/random
I've been listening to more classical music lately, because the guy that drives me to college listens to it, and what I have learned is I've completely forgotten how to read the stuff. Or, okay, maybe not completely. I can start by figuring out what bit of a movie it would go with, though I often get sort of contradictory ideas. But that right there is why I question that 'universal' bit. Music, like any other text, is part of the web of associations, connotations, built up through and between all the texts of our lives. You can't just pull out one bit of music and say 'this means this'.
If music was universal I could listen to chinese music and hear whatever the makers thought it meant, instead of just hearing it and going 'huh, plinky music on a funny scale, weird'.
I guess that maybe some things - like slow or fast, or loud or quiet, or something - would translate as less/more excited or whatever, but I think the specifics are very local.
Not that I've studied music. I heard a talk about the music in Angel once and it made a lot of sense. If a TV show has different themes for different characters I listen for that now, a bit. But still mostly I'll ignore the music unless it has words.
Which, also because I often have the sound off and the subtitles on, but that's just me.
Music I listen to on my own is usually from TV or films or conventions. Connotations, connections, why *I* want to hear that music, not just what that music means in some weirdly unconnected way.
/random