Music and Emotion
What can listening to a piece of music do? Can it bring you to tears? Can it cause instantaneous memory rushes of a particular time or moment in your life? How about causing your body to unconsciously move in rhythm with the beat? Does the quality of the music playback affect the intensity of these reactions to music? How about all of the above?
That’s what makes listening to music so amazing. It can be a completely transformative event. One minute your simply driving home and the next, you’re feeling the emotional tug of a long buried memory or an intense flashback to an important life occasion. But not everyone experiences music the same way…or at all.
I’ve got musical friends and I’ve got non-musical friends. You know the non-musical types don’t you? And no, it’s not the person in the front of the aerobics class that thinks they’re moving in time with the music but in reality has no clue where the beat is. For me, it’s the person that comes into my studio and wants to hear what I’ve been working on. Sometimes I pull out the big guns and play a particularly sad song by one of my favorite artists as a test. I want to see how closely connected that person is to the magic of music and the sound.
If they allow themselves to be taken over by the music, I can tell right away. If they allow themselves to really listen to the lyrics and melody, they will listen intently and let the music swallow them. If they turn to me after about 30-60 seconds and say something like, “that is really amazing. Are you ready for lunch or a cup of coffee?” I know they didn’t make the connection. And this happens more often then I would have imagined. There are just people that think of music as the background soundtrack to their lives. It feels awkward for me to stop the track and shift gears to real like concerns. I can’t imagine what that must be like.
Once I start listening to a particular track, I don’t like to move to another song until the current one is done. The emotional thread that begins with opening notes should be allowed to complete at its own pace or at least fade politely away. There are songs that just can’t be stopped without causing stress.
One of my favorite songs is “I Saw A Stranger With Your Hair” by singer/songwriter John Gorka. As are many of his songs, this one is very personal and self-reflective. John sings about seeing a woman with his former lover’s hair. The trigger of that sight pulls him right back to the pain and memories associated with the loss of that person…the dissolution of that relationship. He’s a master of writing songs that describe a particular feeling in a chord progression and the perfect words. I’ve listened to John’s songs more than anyone else’s because of his ability to tell my story in his words.
I never get tired of hearing his tunes. I never get tired of listening to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos or “Mujaka” played by David Garfield, Dave Carpenter and Luis Conte.
Does the fidelity or the playback system enhance the emotional response of a piece of music? I believe that it does. I’ve returned to a really wonderful demo room after hours to sit and revel in a terrific playback room. But I’ve also gotten the tug while listening to the radio in my car (it’s true that I have a pretty nice system in my 2005 Acura TL…complete with DVD-Audio and 5.1 surround sound).
Music is unique among the arts. Find music that feeds your needs and foster it. Life is too short to live without music…and the better it sounds the better it works.
