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Pendulumn
6/4/2008 11:06 pm Last Read: |
Of late I've just been haunted by Pendulum's " Hold your colour". I really love Drum and Base/Jungle rythms. What is it about music that is so primal? 
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 6/5/2008 2:50 am |
Music is something you can FEEL... you can feel the vibrations of it wash over and through you. Talking is strictly auditory... there is no tactileness (new word?) to it.... but MUSIC....mmmmmmmmmmm For newcomers and not so newcomers. Arm yourself with knowledge
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6/5/2008 3:57 am |
I can
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6/5/2008 8:09 am |
Drums and bass unlock an inherent tribalism. To hold colors is an ancient theme.
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6/5/2008 11:52 am |
Hello V. Well, I've spent a fair bit of my life dealing with this issue in one way or another... so put your feet up and stick the kettle on. All nature exists in time, and has rhythm. From the cycle of big bang to big crunch, the motion of bodies in orbits, the circadian rhythms of plants, the heartbeat of a human. If the latest conjectures from the far reaches of physics are correct, all matter consists of wave functions - basically, rhythms. To have no internal rhythm is to die, to become chaos, white noise.... So all life shares this, in a place that is deeper than DNA, and a whole lot more mystical. To understand music as we perceive it, you have to take into account physics, biology and psycho-acoustics ( which is the niche study of the meeting of the previous two plus psychology ). Some basic ( and not so basic ) maths helps too. The Western musical system ( and there are many others, all sharing some basic features, whilst also displaying many great differences) makes use of a tuning system based on Pythagorean maths - notes are organised such that very simple ratios of pitch are used - 2:1, 3:2 and so forth. These are combined into some type of scale, itself using mathematical ratios and functions. In the Western system there are generally seven notes in a scale, 12 "base" notes you could start with, and a minimum of 7 variations of scale you might form from the base note. This is before you talk to anyone with a Jazz degree.  Simultaneous sounding of different notes in the scale gives a chord, and the combinations of notes and chords forms harmony, which in the Western system follows a number of rules, whilst also allowing variation and evolution. With me so far? All of this is spread over time and in most cases features repetition of time interval, pitch interval, harmony, or all three in any combination. An infinite playground of pitch. volume, and time, creates melody, harmony and rhythm - speaking to us at every level from the cultural, the biological, and the psychological to the religious / mystical. So far so very glib. The magic comes somewhere in our brain, starting at the auditory nerve that links the ear and its associated hardware to the grey stuff. I can't say much about that other than I'm glad it does. Is there a neuroscientist in the house? The point is, all humans regardless of culture, since sometime around 7,000 BC at least, and possibly since the dawn of homo sapiens - have shared an appreciation of pitch ratios and rhythm patterns. In some ways these mirror time and frequency functions we see all around us in the universe, from the very big to the very small. In some mysterious way, these patterns become translated into emotional responses by some mix of DNA, culture, experience, and individual taste. The very earliest music was probably formed from numbers of players striking logs and stones against other logs and stones. This would have left little direct evidence, but might conceivably have been happening for more than 100 millennia. There is (controversial) archaeological evidence for the use of a simple penta tone scale ( as formalised much later by Pythagoras) from c7,000BC, which would suggest that a more basic, probably purely rhythmic music might have evolved well before. In the case of " Hold Your Color" - the emotional response is generally to dance your ass off !  One of the things I love about dance music, and in particular techno, is that is uses 21st century technology to create musical effects that are amongst the oldest and most visceral that exist. A pounding kick and hats rhythm is probably emotionally closer to our rock smashing tribe of hunter gatherers than classical music is, for all it's beauty and subtlety. There are times, after all, when you just want to go ape. Lecture over. Reports in on Monday please Don't blame me - you asked the question.
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8/21/2009 3:52 am |
Alas I've been remiss in my following your blog...but this post struck a chord...pun intended...music is one of the few experiences that touch us on many levels...auditory and tactile primarily...we are fortunate to have our very own metronome within us...our hearts...a recent study found that by humming the Bee Gee's hit Staying Alive while performing CPR improves the victims chance of surviving a myocardial infraction ten-fold. There is a reason that drums are classified as Membranophones...they speak to the core of our very being...as Duke Ellington put it best..."There are only two kinds of music...good and bad...I'm partial to good" Cheers V! "Illigitimi non corburundum est."
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