music

• Behaviors and music by bylowk@gosaints.com, 2/5/98
  
  

please read my post to Henry stein. Also, I was pondering last night as to which part of music would you be studying? You see, we muscicians get a little frustrated when "reaserchers" proclaim various theories about music. As I stated to henry, music is an entity. The biggest problem that researchers of music get into, is they try to investigate certain styles of music, ie. country, rock, classical, etc. But what they fail to realize, is that styles are multifaceted. What you think you are researching, in fact, you may not be researching at all. I know that when one does research, he/she must reduce the confounding factors to as near zero as he/she possibly can. It is impossible to do this with music. In a single piece of music, you have the meter; the key; the modulations; its homophony, or polyphony, or counterpoint, etc.; its chord structure; chord progressions; melody, or lack of melody; its tonality; etc. etc. etc. How do you know, how will you ever know, which part of the music is effecting behavior? Maybe its the way the chords are set against each other. The augmented chord vs. the diminished? the major third? fourth? fifth? Or the minor sixth vs. the tonic? the second? I must say, that I, as a musician for twenty five years, would not venture into what you are venturing, because I know that the results would never be accurate. My advice to you, is to sit back, put on some music, and enjoy it. And enjoy it for the incredible miracle that it is. The enormity of it.

• To Meistra by bylow, 2/12/98