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Re: [microsound] emotions in music

I shudder when considering a discussion about emotion in music; it's an
murky, endless quagmire.  The emotion, or lack thereof, lies with the
listener, not the music.


Here, hear!

The composer can choose to approach composition in ways that tend/try to avoid overt emotional input (automatic writing, systems and limits, cut-up, etc.), it is true. But once the process of composing/recording (I merge them here because so much of microsound is played/recorded by the composer) is finished then the composer's input is over and the music becomes a dead thing, inanimate data on a disc.

A person (even the composer) only brings new life to the piece when listening (or remembering... in the larger sense perceiving), and this reanimation is influenced by all of that listener's experiences, reference points, musical vocabulary, and emotions. Perhaps they will hear the music as emotionless, or maybe as overwrought and even cliched in it's emotional content... that is up to each person and will also vary from listening to listening. Yes, there are commonly held "linguistic terms" in music (major is happy, minor is sad... etc.), but even these end up being quite subjective and variable.

Of course this is all just my opinion, but I feel like it's an act of great egotism for composers/musicians to assume they have any control over the reaction of the listener through they way they work. Of course there are things that artists do that can, in fact, influence the reception of their work (interviews, performances, advertisements), but these are in areas that are strictly speaking beyond the actual compositional process. Perhaps there are some less direct relationships, but it is not, I believe, a one to one correspondence.

G'night...

Michael (eM)

..
out now "import" from the invalidObject series
http://www.fallt.com/invalidObject/import/index.html

out now "all the stars burning bright"
http://www.foundrysite.com/eM/allthestarsburningbright


..