What are you listening to?

[billy rubin]

question.

ive posted this before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEWy2QORDV4

i love philip glass, mostly. totally abstract stuff, and very deliberate. there's lots of space in his music, lots of open country.

but this obviouslly mechanical representation of this motion picture soundtrack has me puzzled.  can this be played by a human being without overdubbing?

the keys being pressed in the representation appear too far apart to be manipulated by a human hand, and the single keys being used to represent the melodies seem pretty simplistic. is the imagery simplified by a machine to represent playing the piece in such a way that a human being would not do?

i dunno shit about music, and this is puzzling me.

[Magdalena]

Dance with me, Ecurb Noselrub 

Dang, I just saw this!!  Is it too late to dance??

...

.........I don't know, man..."

[hermes2015]

question.

ive posted this before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEWy2QORDV4

i love philip glass, mostly. totally abstract stuff, and very deliberate. there's lots of space in his music, lots of open country.

but this obviouslly mechanical representation of this motion picture soundtrack has me puzzled.  can this be played by a human being without overdubbing?

the keys being pressed in the representation appear too far apart to be manipulated by a human hand, and the single keys being used to represent the melodies seem pretty simplistic. is the imagery simplified by a machine to represent playing the piece in such a way that a human being would not do?

i dunno shit about music, and this is puzzling me.

You raise some interesting questions, to which I have no answers. I am just an amateur lover of music, with no technical knowledge of the inner workings of music, so I listen to music in a very unsophisticated way. My assumption is that this music is partially performed on a synthesizer, along with some traditional classical instruments and chorus. I think we should persuade a professional musician to join our HAF family.

[billy rubin]

that would be really interesting

im not even sure i know what music is

[Ecurb Noselrub]

So, let us attempt to define "music".  Here is my shot: a grouping of sonorous sounds, characterized generally and broadly by rhythm and melody, that conveys some emotion without words.  If you add words, it is "music and lyrics". 

[hermes2015]

So, let us attempt to define "music".  Here is my shot: a grouping of sonorous sounds, characterized generally and broadly by rhythm and melody, that conveys some emotion without words.  If you add words, it is "music and lyrics".

Overall, your definition sounds good to me, but I believe the term "sonorous" is problematic, in a similar way to the word "beautiful" when one tries to define art. On the other hand, I must admit that I cannot offer a better definition.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

Music is the sad, emotional cry of my heart when I am rejected by Mags for a dance.

[hermes2015]

Music is the sad, emotional cry of my heart when I am rejected by Mags for a dance.

Oh, now that one I like very much. I am going to submit it to Grove to be included in the next edition of their dictionary:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Grove_Dictionary_of_Music_and_Musicians

[Magdalena]

Music is the sad, emotional cry of my heart when I am rejected by Mags for a dance.

Oh, now that one I like very much. I am going to submit it to Grove to be included in the next edition of their dictionary:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Grove_Dictionary_of_Music_and_Musicians

I like it too.

[billy rubin]

well what the hell is it, reallY

music: an artificial arrangement of sounds from various sources, conforming to a repetitive rhythm and pattern of notes . . .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUrzvLhxA0M

listen to the chemical brothers in ^^^this. this soundtrack was excellent, but it appears to violate some of what i might have considered musical rules.

or maybe not?

[hermes2015]

A definition of music isn't possible or, I suspect, even desirable. As soon as we think we've pinned it down, along comes a Debussy or a John Cage who redefines it for us. Meanwhile, all the other lesser composers will carry on, constrained in the straitjacket we call a definition of music. I was reading recently how the critics disapproved of Monteverdi, around 1600, for deviating from the established ideas of earlier music when he was experimenting with new forms of music we now call opera.

Still, I think it is  an interesting game to try and define things like music, beauty, or art.

[hermes2015]

4'33" by John Cage - Live at the Barbican - BBC Four Collections

[hermes2015]

[hermes2015]

I can't believe I'm turning 75 next week, because I only feel 25, so forgive me if I indulge in a bit of nostalgia. I spent many nights walking through the dimly lit corridors of bath houses in Amsterdam, looking for a bit of amusement. The music playing in the background was often Andy Bell singing with Erasure.

[hermes2015]

Another song that evokes the smell of chlorine.