Has anyone ever read the book "The Giver" by Lois Lowry? My mom referred to it the other day on the phone, and it got me to thinking...the story is basically about a boy who grows up in a contained, very controlled society where one's every action is monitored and your future is plotted out for you from an early age on. But there are none of the "frills" of life which we take for granted...including music (that's a very rough-shod summary, but you get the idea: a world without music). Remembering this got me to thinking just what such a world would be like, and while the general idea of living without music frightened me, the more I thought about it, the more I honestly could not fathom a world without it. Think about it. We encounter some form of music hundreds of times every day, from the bells of Lee Chapel to the chimes of your computer turning on to the theme song of your favorite TV show to the tune running through your head right now, not to mention any time you turn on the radio or play a CD. Even the hum of the classroom lights or the falling of the raindrops has a musical quality to it. And I don't know about you, but music is my outlet. When I'm happy, I play upbeat, fun music. When I'm down in the dumps, I play sad, sappy music. When I'm pissed off, I play loud, angry music. You get the idea... So is it just me, or is a world without music quite literally unimaginable??
Posted by palazzolocm at March 7, 2005 10:04 PMWOW! It's been a long time since I read that book, but I DO remember it. I remember feeling the same way that you do. Someday I'd like to find out more about the actual physical effects that music has on our mind/body. I know how it makes me feel, but like you - I feel like there's a certain necessity for it. Like a sort of soul food. . . like color or art for me. It reminds me of a passage from Kandinsky's "Concerning the Spiritual in Art" I thought you might enjoy it:
If you let your eye astray over a palette of colors, you experience two things. In the first place you receive a purely physical effect, namely the eye itself is enchanted by the beauty and other qualities of color.
But to a more sensitive soul the effect of colors is deeper and intensely moving. And so we come to the second result of looking at colors: their psychological effect. They produce a correspondent spiritual vibration, and it is only as a step toward this spiritual vibration that the physical impression is of importance.
I feel the same is true for music. It can strike a seperate vibration from the physical. It recalls associations of past experiences, it has the power to soothe, excite, make anxious. . . so like you say - what would a world without music be. I wonder if in his world of the giver - the world would be so physically grounded that associations and emotions would be less extreme (which is what I somewhat recall from the book). interesting. thank you for sparking that little light way back in the recesses of my memory.
Posted by: katie at March 29, 2005 12:10 AM