Sound bites

[hazelk]

Two fox cubs playing in our back yard this morning. Very young, little stubby tails and still clumsy enough to get tripped by a three brick wall. One of the benefits of summer flu driving out sleep.

And I have a new haircut, it’s really cool.

Read an interesting post on my list about the way people listen to music. Hearing shapes, I do that partly, curves just out of sight, used to have a similar thing with maths. But with music it’s more like feeling shapes, a sort of kinaesthetic, dancey thing. Some music hangs from the shoulders, spins and strobes epileptically and some is all in the hips or the feet or a turn of the head. Or stretches out, extending infinitely or is tight, driving down, all in one plane. Some has no dance.

Comments

[ann1962]

Can you link to the post?

I feel music as pressures rather than shapes. Sometimes it is coloured, sometimes not. Definitely curved though, rarely sharp edged.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

What a brilliant icon! I still maintain that Boreanez must be able to dance to dance that badly. Wesley not so much though.

The link is http://ascian3.livejournal.com/157632.html. It's really more a post about vids and music and the interaction between the two but I always like reading about how different people perceive things.

[ann1962]

Thank you. I will check it out!

Here is Wes! Heee

[luminosity]

I have synesthesia, albeit a slight case. All my life. I was 22 before I realized that not everyone saw blue and purple rings spinning around objects when they listened to certain music (my world view was shattered by Alan Parsons Project *g*), and not everyone identified November as "that grey-green spot in time," and the number "4" didn't sound dark pink. Not really. Songs usually have a certain color to them, and if that's weird, well then, it's just one more weird thing, and I integrate it into the weirdness that is me. :)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I've read a couple other vidders talking about having synesthesia, it always sounds fascinating and the idea of songs etc. having colours has an intuitive rightness to it. I think I might recognise a colour as being right for a song but could never work it out on my own. I'm not sure I even think in colour properly, unless I'm trying to recall a specific image, things look like they do in peripheral vison all rods, no cones. My brain has yet to achieve primate status. :)

[luminosity]

Doing There There for Illyria was a challenge for me because the song is green and gold. That's almost non sequitur, isn't it? But the pull of the metaphor was too strong, so I went for it.

I don't even know if I can see things the way you describe. We all see things differently, and some of us even more than others. *g*

[ninerva.livejournal.com]

That's interesting, I hadn't thought about it in that way before. The first peice of music I thought of though, reading your post, was Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue. Must be listened to with eyes closed for all the curvy bits. :-)

Baby foxes are too cute aren't they. Lot's of people complain, but I like that they are urban wildlife now.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Yes very curvy, I think it's the saxaphone.

Baby foxes are too cute aren't they.
Horribly so. I'll probably be cursing them and their complete lack of toilet training in a few weeks but it always feels good to see them around.

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

That's fascinating about the music. I have nothing even remotely like that. I have several ways of listening to music.

I sometimes obtain an image of something - a place, an animal, rain falling, a tree through the seasons - whatever it evokes. It will be quite complex and visually detailed as my imagination always is. And I will study that image and watch how it develops as the music develops.

Alternatively I will listen to the music as a thing in itself, listening to the melodies develop, the contrasting texture of the chords, hearing themes repeat etc. This, I always blandly assume, is how most composers would want us to listen. I have a very limited technical understanding of music so I am not doing this in anything like the depth that some people can, but I know that on those rare occasions when I can get swept up by a concert and truly listen for the whole thing it is an experience of amazing intensity.

Sadly, what happens most often is that my mind drifts in and out. I will sometimes be listening to the music and sometimes be thinking of other things with the music as background occasionally contributing a few layers. This doesn't matter when it's just me at home with a CD, but I feel I have cheated myself if it happens at a concert.

But I'm talking entirely about classical music here, I don't listen to pop and have no understanding of it, it is not quite white noise to me but there is nothing beyond the beat. In classical music the beat is only a very small part of what is going on - it provides an anchor and an underlying understanding for the progression, but then there are layers and layers on top for me. With pop music the only thing I can understand is the beat (I normally have great difficulty catching the lyrics, incidentally) so it takes over, becomes the only thing one listens to. This is obviously intensely boring for more than a minute or two but can be quite fun as regards getting my feet tapping. It's also quite good for driving to since it can penetrate over the noise of the car.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Music seems to cross-wire the senses differently for everyone (Am suddenly struck by the idea that if dogs were musical they’d be seeing it in smellovison. Maybe vampires would, Angelus at the ballet. dreaming symphonies in blood groups).

I’m mostly talking pop, classical generally makes me feel that I’m not really musical, there’s a sense of something I wish I could follow but it goes over my head. Except for opera and I’m not sure if that’s because I’ve been to some live performances or the voices give it an emotional hook. Like I used to be able to do maths if it would solve a biological problem.

You strongly imply that you aren't visualising these shapes so when you say 'feeling' do you mean imagining the movement as if you yourself where performing it - not your body you, but your mind you, which can sweep and spin in three dimensions without restriction? Or is this something you are feeling in your own body as you listen, are you in fact moving slightly if at all possible, or dancing for best? Or is it something else?

There’s a mixture of things going on. Some times I imagine someone dancing but even then I’m mostly aware of where the movement starts from in them, in the body, which part of the spine, I feel that. It’s a bit like that Maggie Walsh line in Hush about not the idea but the moment before the idea. The moment before the motion. No, not that kind of motion!

When I was a child I would just get up and dance but that stopped being socially acceptable some time ago. I see the boys do it now and significantly more than the others in their class. Spaz dancing genetic, who knew?

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

Music seems to cross-wire the senses differently for everyone (Am suddenly struck by the idea that if dogs were musical they’d be seeing it in smellovison. Maybe vampires would, Angelus at the ballet. dreaming symphonies in blood groups).

Oh what a fantastic idea. Although Angelus himself I always think of as a supremely visual person - being an artists and obsessed with the looks of young blonds (or brunettes). But Darla - we know she likes music and she has always struck me as a sensualist, with whom I actually associate specific smells. So yes, marvellous idea, I may well nick it if you have no objection.

Except for opera and I’m not sure if that’s because I’ve been to some live performances or the voices give it an emotional hook.
Opera is a convenient way into classical for many people because it has a clear story. But actually you are very accustomed to hearing teh emotional content of classical music - everyone is - because they use it all teh time for film and TV background music. Pop just doesn't cut the mustard emotionally. There is actually more classical music being written now than there ever has been it is just all for background to acting rather than as a thing in itself.

There’s a mixture of things going on. Some times I imagine someone dancing but even then I’m mostly aware of where the movement starts from in them, in the body, which part of the spine, I feel that. It’s a bit like that Maggie Walsh line in Hush about not the idea but the moment before the idea. The moment before the motion. No, not that kind of motion!

When I was a child I would just get up and dance but that stopped being socially acceptable some time ago. I see the boys do it now and significantly more than the others in their class. Spaz dancing genetic, who knew?

Oh, okay, I think I can grasp what you mean. And is this feeling of dance tapping into the beat, the melody, the emotion, all of them, or what?

It is interesting that you associate it with childhood and the freedom from social restrictions that your boys enjoy. Do you ever dance with them in the privacy of your own home?

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

So yes, marvellous idea, I may well nick it if you have no objection.
Is flattered.

Opera is a convenient way into classical for many people because it has a clear story.
I was going to say film music and also ballet beacause duh. For me, pop music also has the weight of old associations and the words to the songs. Cole Porter through to Kayne West, I like words set to music, they hit home the way poetry rarely does (shh don't tell macha).

And is this feeling of dance tapping into the beat, the melody, the emotion, all of them, or what?
Beat I suppose mostly and emotion gives it an overall shape. Melody I'm not very sensitive to but can pick up on flourishes.

Do you ever dance with them in the privacy of your own home?
Shh (again) when nobody's looking. But their taste in music is appalling. For the most part.

[http://users.livejournal.com/peasant_/]

it’s more like feeling shapes, a sort of kinaesthetic, dancey thing. Some music hangs from the shoulders, spins and strobes epileptically and some is all in the hips or the feet or a turn of the head. Or stretches out, extending infinitely or is tight, driving down, all in one plane. Some has no dance.

You strongly imply that you aren't visualising these shapes so when you say 'feeling' do you mean imagining the movement as if you yourself where performing it - not your body you, but your mind you, which can sweep and spin in three dimensions without restriction? Or is this something you are feeling in your own body as you listen, are you in fact moving slightly if at all possible, or dancing for best? Or is it something else?