In all reality, almost every post I do of a serious nature will be dear to me, but I'll get it started with this subject.
I'm a musician. At least that's what I aspire to be. I'm not quite sure why yet. Maybe it's the beauty and majesty that accompany it. Maybe it's the intellectual and artistic endeavors. Maybe it's the ability that it has to communicate to a deeper, more moving manner than pretty much anything else I know of. Or maybe it's just how fun it is - to listen to, to create, to study, to reproduce. It could be a mixture of all of this. Either way, I digress.
Why do any of us do music? Why does it even exist? What's the point? It's just sound waves moving through the air at varying rates and frequencies. Who's to say what music is good and what's bad? Here are what I believe the different "categories" (for lack of better words) of the reasons for music.
1.) Artistic advancement. Music is a form of art. Along with architecture, visual art, dance and theater it has been an outlet for the artist to get whatever is going on in his or her head out. It has a way of matching the visual aspects. For example, compare baroque architecture - complete with all of its ornaments and frills, with a Bach fugue from "The Well-Tempered Clavier." Or, on the opposite end, compare Shoenberg's Suite op 25, Präludiu, with it's seemingly meaningless and completely random note choices to "Nude Descending a Staircase" by Marcel Duchamp (You can wiki it. It doesn't even look like anything at all, so you're safe.) To an untrained spectator either can seem absolutely obscure and pointless, but to one who studies they will show how precisely organized and articulate they really are. In my opinion, whether the idea originally conceived in the artist's head was meant to be understood by anyone in the outside world or not is completely up to them. That brings us further along in the "Why do we do music?" monologue in which I am now engaged.
2.) Emotional Communication. Dr. Jon Linford, Associate Dean of the College of Performing and Visual Arts at BYU-Idaho, stated "A composer can reduce what he's feeling to black dots on page, and then two-hundred years later an orchestra can take those black dots and recreate the exact same thing that he was feeling two-hundred years before. Now that's just magic." Emotions of elation (Saint-Saëns Sumphony no. 3, mov. 4), tragedy (Samuel Barber, String Quartet op. 11, mov. 2 "Adagio for Strings"), Anger (Shostakovitch, String Quartet no. 8, mov. 2), and peace (Beethoven, piano sonata no. 8, mov. 2). At least in my experience, listening to any of these works - or similar works - will always have a positive outcome. There's something about listening to your own emotions in audible form that is therapudic, will always make you feel better, even if it's not a happy song you're listening. However, because emotional manipulation through music is real and very effective, this usually only works when we're already feeling what we're listening to. If it's unexpected, emotions can be elevated in a negative way. For example, at the Paris premiere of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," a riot literally ensued. Pop music does this as well - manipulates emotions. Therefore the counsel from the prophets: "Choose carefully the music you listen to. Pay atten- tion to how you feel when you are listening. Don’t listen to music that drives away the Spirit, encourages immorality, glorifies violence, uses foul or offensive language, or promotes Satanism or other evil practices." (For the Strength of Youth, pg. 20.)
3. Entertainment. Pop music. Music written specifically to help the audience have fun, to enjoy their time. Easy enough. A simple, enjoyable category.
4. Praise to God. Some would argue that this is part of the second category, but I find some differences. To communicate emotion is mirroring what you feel. To make music in praise of God is to take what you feel and completely offer it to the Almighty. What will happen - in my opinion - is when written for Heaven, Heaven will help the writing. It is, in a way, a sacrifice to be placed on the altar. The Lord, through His Prophets, has revealed a portion of His own feelings on music: D&C 25:12 "The song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads." Also, D&C 136:28 "If thou art merry, praise the Lord with singing, with music, with dancing, and with a prayer of praise and thanksgiving." This, in my own opinion, is the highest form that music can take. As J.S. Bach stated, "Solo Deo gloria" (To God alone be the glory.)
I am a musician. Or at least I aspire to be one. I'm not quite sure why yet, but in my lifelong study of music, I'll find out someday. Until then, I'm content to relish every moment that I can be a part of it.
