Name:Jaquon Country:United States State:Illinois Metro:Crystal Lake Birthday:5/26/1985 Gender:Male
Interests:Music (all kinds but I really love jazz, classical, the American Musical, and OPERA!), listening to public radio (91.1 FM), performing, reading, writing, art, design, photography, fitness, family, travel, and above all: my savior! Expertise:Primarily singing and a little of everything else; I'm a good chameleon. Occupation:Student Industry:Nonprofit
Art and Pain: Why do we Love Music more Some Days than Others?
We've all had the revelation; there's that song that is in your mix of music, you've heard it enough to be familiar with it. But then there is that moment when it transfigures in your mind and takes on meaning. The notes become depth charges on your soul and it becomes beautiful to you. This song becomes the one that carries you though the spell that summoned it to your emotions. Often I've noticed that I'm a fickle lover of music. There are the times when I'd ratter hear speech, conversation, or silence over music. But then those special times come when I LOVE music; when the artistic arrangement of sound waves summons my soul. What makes the difference? I believe that our changing relationship with music can be evaluated by two variables; variables which encompass the main functions of personal art.
Personal Functions of Art: 1. Sympathy 2. Contrast
Sympathy: Sometimes I love music because it comes along side me in a sentiment. Examples include listening to romantic songs when I am in love, listening to upbeat songs when I am excited, listening to angry songs when I am upset, and listening to sad songs when I am depressed. Music hit's the spot when there is a spot to hit. I find strength in it. I find strength in sympathy; to know that I am not alone! It's a very effective (and affective) emotional support, just like all emotional support ("it'll be alright") is. But in music, as opposed to a recorded voice giving sympathy, it is real because it works from the inside out. I feel better so I think that it will be alright. There is projection. Music is healing maybe in its ability to distract, but more likely in the way that a good cry is healing. I think that music appreciation in the sympathetic role is the most elementary and natural way to love music. On the flip side, music appreciation for sympathetic reasons is also the least sophisticated and least challenging way to love music.
Contrast: There are times when something terrible has happened and we love music because it is beautiful and unlike the world. I always enjoy music more when I am vulnerable, when I am needy. According to the philosopher Alain De Botton in The Architecture of Happiness,
"When put up against the setbacks of emotional and political life we may judge art differently- as islands of perfection. As contrast between noble qualities & sadder wider reality A lump rises in our throat at the sight of beauty from an implicit knowledge that the happiness it hints at is the exception. It is in the dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. ...In his memoirs, the German theologian Paul Tillich explained that art had always left him cold as a pampered and trouble-free young man, despite the best pedagogical efforts of his parents and teachers. Then the First World War broke out, he was called up and, in a period of leave from his battalion (Three quarters of whose members would be killed in the course of the conflict), he found himself in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin during a rain storm. There, in a small upper gallery, he came across Sandro Botticelli's "Madonna and Child with Eight Singing Angels" and, on meeting the wise, fragile, compassionate gaze of the Virgin, surprised himself by beginning to sob uncontrollably. He experienced what he described as a moment of 'revelatory ecstasy', tears welling up in his eyes at the disjunction between the exceptionally tender atmosphere of the picture and the barbarous lessons he had learnt in the trenches. It is in a dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value." I think that art is an imperfect protest against the state of things.
Here I come to the point of my title, and my personal theory on my love for music. I think that pain, when dealt with healthily, makes us tender-hearted. I think that art and pain go hand-in-hand. As Mr. Botton says in his book on architecture, "Life may have to show itself to us in some of its authentically tragic colors before we can begin to grow properly visually responsive to its subtler offerings. It tends not to be young couples in love who stop to admire a weathered brick wall." Just the same, it tends not to be young people with gadgets to entertain and friends to distract who will open their hearts to Beethoven. No; pain is the grain that makes the pearl. Music moves us somedays more than others because of the darker backdrop against which it is set on these days.
Application: I fell in love with the St. Olaf Choir's performance of "Beautiful Savior" and decided to analyze why I loved it:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jWh2lOICaqA
Music, Spirituality, Logic: Beautiful Savior. Funny how it hit the spot. I am now going to make up an explanation that corresponds with a spiritual view then one that corresponds with a musical view followed by my Dr. Ligate influenced view.
Spiritual 1. I find comfort in beautiful savior because it is a song of adoration toward God. When all else seems to have failed me, including myself, I look to my beautiful savior as a heartening contrast. It gives me hope for beauty.
Music Theory/sympathy 2. I identify with the tension of the harmony, all yearning for the stability of tonic as I yearn for a kind of resolution.
Dr. Ligate (or the Golden Mean) 3. 'Beautiful Saviour is a combination of the Musical and Spiritual factors because this is one example of church music where the theory and the text reflected in a unified fashion the truth of the Gospel!!!
Music and God: Perhaps there is something in the connection of the divine to art. Is is imago dei? We love music because we are seeking the image of God and in some music we are able to perceive it?
Legend has it that while St. Valentine was in prison--awaiting execution for defying a Roman emperor's edict against conducting marriages--he fell in love with his jailor's blind daughter.
Through unwavering faith, the story says, Valentine restored the woman's sight. Then, before his execution, he slipped her a farewell note signed "from your Valentine"--the original Valentine's card.
I recently went through a few photo albums; retreat, cheddars, ect, and I couldn't help but notice the warm feeling I had. I would like to extend my most heartfelt gratitude to my closest friends and let them know that it is because of them that I like Evangel; it is for their sakes that I consider this my home. You have done something that Jesus would do; you have made me feel like a person of value, like I belong; you make me feel loved!
Isn't that what a Christian should do; make people feel cared for, reflect the love of Christ? I count myself honored and blessed to know every one of you; and as Paul said "I thank God for you daily".
This is the beginning of the best years of our life;
