Philosophy Thesis
Music: Its Expressive Qualities and the Arousal of Emotion Within its Listeners
By Zachary M. Matook Imagine standing amongst a concert crowd, the lights have just have been dimmed to darkness during the buildup in your favorite song, and the guitar gradually becomes louder and louder as if it were coming from the distance. You see the silhouettes of the band members; you may not even know the person next to you, yet you both share in this energy filling the room. Then boom, the sound shakes the floor beneath you, the lights explode with colors, and you feel the music move through your body and the hairs on the back of your neck raise. This feeling, this moment we all love when listening to the most moving music, is one of pure emotional arousal induced by musical expression. It takes your breath away for a brief moment, almost connecting you with the music itself. Since its beginnings, music has been used as a tool for manipulating our emotions. There have been sad songs, uplifting songs, inspirational songs, and songs of hatred. But, regardless of the artist or musician’s intention, almost all music is created with the goal of affecting the listener in some way. Otherwise, what would be the purpose of making or listening to music? Of course there are those who only make music for the money, but these are not artists, they are just the vessels through which this commercial noise is played. When someone wants to hear a favorite song if theirs, its not because they want to take pleasure in just hearing the sounds it produces, but rather because they enjoy the feeling or feelings it arouses within them. There are individuals who believe that this arousal of emotion comes from musical devices such as the colorful harmonies of a piece of music, others say it is the melody, and there are also those who assert it is a result of a response to rhythmic patterns. Some look at the bigger picture, and hold the idea that music’s ability to arouse emotion is a result
By Zachary M. Matook Imagine standing amongst a concert crowd, the lights have just have been dimmed to darkness during the buildup in your favorite song, and the guitar gradually becomes louder and louder as if it were coming from the distance. You see the silhouettes of the band members; you may not even know the person next to you, yet you both share in this energy filling the room. Then boom, the sound shakes the floor beneath you, the lights explode with colors, and you feel the music move through your body and the hairs on the back of your neck raise. This feeling, this moment we all love when listening to the most moving music, is one of pure emotional arousal induced by musical expression. It takes your breath away for a brief moment, almost connecting you with the music itself. Since its beginnings, music has been used as a tool for manipulating our emotions. There have been sad songs, uplifting songs, inspirational songs, and songs of hatred. But, regardless of the artist or musician’s intention, almost all music is created with the goal of affecting the listener in some way. Otherwise, what would be the purpose of making or listening to music? Of course there are those who only make music for the money, but these are not artists, they are just the vessels through which this commercial noise is played. When someone wants to hear a favorite song if theirs, its not because they want to take pleasure in just hearing the sounds it produces, but rather because they enjoy the feeling or feelings it arouses within them. There are individuals who believe that this arousal of emotion comes from musical devices such as the colorful harmonies of a piece of music, others say it is the melody, and there are also those who assert it is a result of a response to rhythmic patterns. Some look at the bigger picture, and hold the idea that music’s ability to arouse emotion is a result
Cited: in paper as: (Noise) 13. Roger Scruton. The Aesthetics of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. 14. Leo Tolstoy, What is Art? Published by Penguin Books, 1995, England.