Up@dawn 2.0

Friday, December 8, 2017

My Philosophy and Music, Part one #10 Austyn Oglesby


The image pictured is an ENGL - E670
 Guitar Amplifier one of my dream amps. 

Music has been apart of philosophy long before our current age. What I've always found fascinating about music is how many different ways it can be interpreted, defined, and observed. As I've learned in my introductory music course, in ancient china there was an instrument known as the Qin (Pronounced Chin, and also know as the Guqin) and it is a stringed instrument one plays sitting down. The Qin is a very quiet instrument, one that was not played for performance, but for one purpose: Self Contemplation.  To sit down and play the Qin was considered a solemn art, and also one that most of the nobility practiced. 



I use the example of the Qin to highlight one point, Music isn't something that has one definition at any given time. Music isn't something that exists as one definitive substances, but it does exist as something that is apart of numerous substances. That isn't t say that Music isn't definable at all, and at the end of the day Music is simply just "Sound."  You can quantify music and you can also describe Music in qualitative means, so by its very essence Music is very hard to be simply defined. Denotations and connotations aside, Music is something is Quantitative, so in theory we could actually run out of music. 

Here is where some of the "Math" for music can be seen, and why we might actually one day run out of music altogether. 

Not to say that Music will just up an vanish or become scarce like a resource, but eventually any and all Melodic, Harmonic, and Rhythmic content will be written and performed. So eventually, there will not be any music that we can call "Unique" in that there will simply be no permutation of music left for us to observe. Every note, chord, and rhythm will be played and played in such a matter that one day, and that day is beyond probably even humanity's span as a species, there will be nothing left to compose. Well doesn't that sound saddening, to think that nary a tune will be produced and that the inevitable is impending Silence. Of course, to this I offer the composition written by John Cage titled "4:33" or Four Minutes and Thirty- Three seconds; I won't spoil the piece for you (And I suggest you go give it a listen in your spare time after reading this) - but the piece is very quiet. 

If I had to define myself in theological terms, I would call place myself somewhere between a Deist or an Atheist. I do not believe in any "God" and I do not worship anything, but I believe that there is something that is simply beyond our intrinsically human observation. Simply put, there are phenomena that occur that we simply do not have and understanding for, and that we have never been able to solve. Why we live, What is our purpose, What happens after we die? One may also observe certain consistencies between nature and mathematics, The Golden ratio, The hypotenuse, Avogadro's constant. Even to some extent, this can be seen in musical terms.

Music is something outside of our world, akin to a mathematical plan of existence, but unlike math music can be seen as solely finite. Music exists as the symbols we may view on paper or in the form of the sounds that penetrate the silence of life. On paper, Music is represented in a world of perfect pitch and sound. Of course semantics matter in this instance, Is music defined as purely sound made up of waves and frequencies? Or is music defined as something else in other terms such as being made up of Melodic, Harmonic, and Rhythmic content along will sounds and effects that are simply "Pleasing" to the ear?


Animals as Leaders, One of the most innovative
group of Musicians around. "On Impulse" is one of
my favorite songs off of this album. 
However you want to look at it, Music is a lot like Philosophy. Many different people compose, play, and listen to music but nobody can put an end-all-be-all definition behind the pesky art of sounds that make make our ears happy. That's my definition behind music anyways, my one for philosophy is ideas that make our heads ache until we come up with more ideas to make our heads feel better. 

Maybe one day someone will figure it all out and we can all go home and spend our spare time on something less purposeful and contemplative, like Music. I wouldn't want the search for knowledge to ever be over, but on one hand being able to practice sick guitar riffs....




    Music for me is an experience, and it is one that I find most enjoyable. I find purpose in creation and in the creation of music I find no other purpose. Whether Music is an art or not is left to be determined. Chords, scales, and notes can be defined with quantifiable definitions their effects cannot. What makes a piece of music foreboding, or solemn, or happy? Why do we feel an emotional response at all when we listen to music?

Part Two.








   























2 comments:

  1. "Why do we feel an emotional response at all when we listen to music?" Well, Schopenhauer said it's because music is our most direct and familiar acquaintance with Will. Other philosophers have suggested other responses. I guess you'll get into that a bit in your 2d installment?

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  2. I believe that we feel an emotional response to music because we link certain songs to real life events that have happened to us, rather they be happy or sad moments.

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