Musica Pratica

"Beethoven's deafness designates the lack wherein resides all signification; it appeals to a music that is not abstract or inward, but that is endowed, if one may put it like this, with a tangible intelligibility, with the intelligible as tangible." (p 152- 153) Image-Music-Text by Roland Barthes.

Barthes argues that music is not merely an abstract or inward experience but possesses a tangible intelligibility that appeals to our senses.

He examines different aspects of music, including its notation systems, its potential for transformation and interpretation, and its ability to evoke emotions and sensations. Barthes underlines that music is not solely as a theoretical concept but as a lived experience, an embodied practice that engages both the intellect and the senses. 

I agree that music is capable of evoking shared experiences and creating connections between individuals. Also, listeners are not only listening, but also interact with the social and cultural meaning in its sensory. Using my personal experience as an example, I can feel scenes and atmospheres from music. The specific way I perceive them is perhaps because our senses are interconnected. There's a scientific experiment with dogs salivating upon hearing a bell, which explains it. Auditory stimuli can awaken subconscious memories, which, in turn, can trigger the sensory experiences associated with those memories. Describing these experiences accurately in language is challenging. For instance, when I hear music played on the Suona, my mind associates it with traditional Chinese funeral or wedding ceremonies, evoking nostalgic imagery and feelings. Even though I have never attended traditional funerals or weddings, nor have I participated in ceremonies with Suona performances. In the song 'Where We Wanna Be' by Hyper Potions, I could hear the happy scene of a group of corgis running out of the front door in a warm afternoon.

Any way, music touches our lives in profound ways, and has rich potential to communicate, to transcend language barriers, and to resonate with our innermost selves.

 

           

This photo was taken when I got lost in Shattuck Hall of Music during the first week of the term.

This semester I joined choir and performed with the orchestra on Friday, April 21, in A Silence Haunts Me and This Love Between Us, which is a very religious piece of music. Some of the lyrics are in Hindi, so I was just memorizing the pronunciation as I sang, but I could still feel the devotion in the music. I felt a deeper impaction of emotion when I participated in the rehearsal and performance than when I was just a simple listener.