Todd Hart

Without poetry we wouldn't have music in any of its modern forms, many of the modern concepts of music are based on poetic ideas, mostly from ancient Greece (the trade goes both way, before some music fanboy rails at me (though poetry is clearly superior)).

But you are saying that the lack of narrative is a negative, no? I mean that's the only reason you can't convert music into a poem (though many have written poems based on musical inspiration), just as you can't convert cake into a poem. You can write about cake/music, but that's not the essence of what the cake/poem is.

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KiLLSWiTCH-KnoT

abstract emotion and feels are the only truths
images and concepts are illusions
music plays around with the heart of shit
its maths that we can hear
and maths is the blood of everything
word

crazysam23_Atax

That was terrible...(actually, it was kind of clever, in an odd sort of way)

OT:
The beauty of music is that one person can listen to a piece and feel one way, while another person can listen to the same piece and feel the exact opposite. Now, that's not to say that certain types of music don't evoke certain emotions. Point is, it's all up to interpretation. Also, note that lyrics can help guide a listener's interpretation.

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I am on break from recording until I buy a new computer in June. Look at the bandcamp page to see the track list for upcoming EP "Discarnate".



Terry Prachett is funnier than you! Discworld

Wiegenlied

I've read a book, The World in Six Songs by Daniel Levitin on this topic. He basically elaborates that from an evolutionary perspective music has developed, and remained for six basic purposes. For example:

Knowledge: Things are easier to remember in song, especially if they rhyme. Think back to your childhood, things like the ABCs, tying your shoes, etc. all had little jingles that helped your memorize the order of things. Also in the times before parchment and the ability to write ideas down, they were passed down, threw word of mouth, often in stories and song. This is another reason how music was used as a tool for human learning.

The other categories include love, joy, religion, comfort, and friendship

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Irondevil

Music, like all art, is made to be enjoyed. Some may seek deeper meanings in them, some may not, but in general, all good art will make you feel emotions. And it doesnt really matter who you are as a person, something sad will make you feel sad and something happy will make you feel happy. And when you feel those emotions, you start to think. And those thoughts that form in your head are there for the pure reason that the music youre listening to put them there. The thoughts in your head are the images that the music is portraying, wheather the artist intended it to or not is irrelevent, since whats going through your head when you listen to a song is directly influenced by the sounds youre hearing, so the images you claim not to see are actually there, youre just looking in the wrong places and therefore think theyre not there. Try listening to a beautiful symphony, or a pounding heavy metal song and try to tell me it doesnt affect your emotions. Because it will, for the simple reason that thats what the artist intended when he wrote the song. He felt emotions, be it sadness, happyness, love or hate, and he put them into song form, and now you feel those very same emotions. If you can honestly tell me that when you listen to music you don't feel any emotions, than you need to start listening to some better music

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Jehannum

Ooh, do they make you horny too?

OT: music has relative meaning, prose has absolute meaning.

T7E

Music = Organised sound

so maybe?

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Xiaoxi

No fucks given. I have strongly held beliefs about my favorite subject in the world and I deserve them, having worked hard to understand it.

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Modes and scales are dumb and useless. Stop learning them. No, seriously.

Analyzing Brahms: Insights to Help Us Improve Our Music

Nelsean attempting to pronounce my name lol

I got Last.fm. Don't know why...

willT08

I don't see why it would.

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chaoticfables

I thought that was up to the listener, just like all other forms of art?

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Annyong
I'm used to a car with stairs.

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Burgery

music aint about chivalry

its about cold lyrics an delivery

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snipelfritz

Not trying to start a semantic quagmire, but this isn't necessarily true. For example:



That's a composed piece that consists of eight radios controlled by eight people randomly being played at various frequencies at the controller's discretion.

While feedback can be controlled, the particular sounds it make will typically have a sense of randomness. That said, Sonic Youth is still music despite highly "disorganized" portions of their songs.

I don't really understand the comparison in the OP of prose to music without lyrics. One has words, one doesn't. Of course music will be more ambiguous. Even then, words themselves always carry connotations that will vary from person to person.

I think I had another point, but I forgot what it was. Like I said this is a quagmire in the making.

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hriday_hazarika

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Crillz

sometimes you get that meaningful music, I guess that's pretty meaningful sometimes

MadClownDisease

It might not be as clearly marked, but if by "meaning" you mean the music is clearly about something, then I see no reason why not. For a start, as you say music can often very clearly mark a certain emotion or state. Emotions can be very easily and clearly expressed or indicated by pieces.

If you mean in terms of telling a story or talking about objects or events etc etc again a lot of music does do this, especially more classical stuff. A lot of classical was about stories and events.

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Mephaphil

People mean stuff when they wrote music so yea, it has meaning.

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snipelfritz

What if the meaning is that it has no meaning?



MURRRRRRRRR?

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Burgery

impossibru

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snipelfritz

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