Moments in Musical Philosphy

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

Humorous or serious musical philosophy moments

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

To do is to be - Nietzsche

 

To be is to do - Kant

 

To be is to be the value of a variable - Quine

 

Do Be Do Be Do - Sinatra

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

“Where words fail, music speaks.” ― Hans Christian Andersen

[Solstice380]

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”  Friedrich Nietzsche. I did a Philosophy independent study on Nietzsche my senior year of undergrad for fun.

[Solstice380]

“I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.”  Tom Waits   No surprise there!

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

1 hour ago, Solstice380 said:

“I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.”  Tom Waits   No surprise there!

 

"The piano has been drinking, not me" - Tom Waits

[AnotherSpin]

The word 'listen' contains the same letters as the word 'silent' - Alfred Brendel

[christopher3393]

7 hours ago, Solstice380 said:

Without music, life would be a mistake

 

Me: Hmmmm...could you put that in context?

 

N. Sure.

 

"How little it takes to make us happy! The sound of a bagpipe.—Without music, life would be an error. The German even imagines God as singing songs."

 

Me: er, ok, tx. (bagpipes? seiously?) Got anything else?

 

N.: You betcha! Try this out:

 

"Music, as we understand it today, is also a total excitation and discharge of the emotions, but it is just the leftover of a much fuller expressive world of emotion, a mere residue of Dionysian histrionics. In order to make music possible as a separate art, we have immobilized a number of senses, the muscular sense above all (relatively, at least: for all rhythm still appeals to our muscles to a certain degree), so that people no longer immediately imitate and represent with their bodies everything they feel. Nevertheless, that  is the truly Dionysian normal state, or at least the primordial state; music is the specialization of this state, a specialization which has been achieved slowly, at the expense of the most closely related faculties."

 

Me: ah...dude, maybe you just party with the wrong people. I'm Irish.

[Audiophile Neuroscience]

6 hours ago, christopher3393 said:

 

"Music, as we understand it today, is also a total excitation and discharge of the emotions, but it is just the leftover of a much fuller expressive world of emotion, a mere residue of Dionysian histrionics. In order to make music possible as a separate art, we have immobilized a number of senses, the muscular sense above all (relatively, at least: for all rhythm still appeals to our muscles to a certain degree), so that people no longer immediately imitate and represent with their bodies everything they feel. Nevertheless, that  is the truly Dionysian normal state, or at least the primordial state; music is the specialization of this state, a specialization which has been achieved slowly, at the expense of the most closely related faculties."

 

Me: Dude, man, bro...I get it but try as I may, it won't fit on my T-shirt

 

N: Oh, Dude, major SOZ and SSS, sorry so sloppy. let me lay this on ya

     Without music, life would be a mistake

 

Me: Okay man, maybe.....got anything on Audio forums?

 

N:Sure Dude, whats say ya..

There are two different types of people in audio, those who want to know, and those who want to believe.

 

Me: Nah, they'd never believe ya

[sphinxsix]

16 hours ago, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

To do is to be - Nietzsche

 

To be is to do - Kant

 

To be is to be the value of a variable - Quine

 

Do Be Do Be Do - Sinatra

 

De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da - The Police.

 

'Don't think me unkind
Words are hard to find
They're only cheques I've left unsigned
From the banks of chaos in my mind

And when their eloquence escapes me
Their logic ties me up and rapes me

De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
Their innocence will pull me through
De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
They're meaningless and all that's true

Poets priests and politicians
Have words to thank for their positions
Words that scream for your submission
And no-one's jamming their transmission

'Cause when their eloquence escapes you
Their logic ties you up and rapes you

De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
Their innocence will pull me through
De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
They're meaningless and all that's true

De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
Their innocence will pull me through
De do do do de da da da
Is all I want to say to you
De do do do de da da da
They're meaningless and all that's true'

 

[christopher3393]

In the eleventh century, the Ikhwan Al-Safa, a priesthood of Islamic scholars who lived in what is current day Basra, Iraq, compiled their philosophy of music in epistle 5 of "Epistles of the Brethren of Purity".

 

Members of this priesthood were scholars of Plato and Aristotle’s writings on music, among many other traditions of ancient thought. Chapter 16 is entitled “On the Wise Sayings of the Philosophers Concerning Music”. Here is one of those sayings:

 

"Although an instrument is inanimate, it gives clear expression, revealing the secrets of souls and the innermost recesses of the heart, but it is as if what it says is in a foreign tongue that needs an interpreter, for its utterances lie deeper than words."

 

The "proof text" that is offered is a poem by the great Persian poet, Rudaki (d.940):

 

The nocturnal lament of the lute string

 is sweeter to my ear than [the cry of] 'God is great!'

 If the plaint of the lute string - and do not think this strange –

 attracts its prey from the wide plains,

 With no arrow it yet from time to time

 pierces its body, the dart transfixing the heart,

 Now weeping, now grief-stricken,

 from break of day through noon till dusk.

 Although bereft of a tongue, its eloquence

 can interpret the lovers' story,

 Now making the madman sane,

 now casting the sane under its spell.

[christopher3393]

"We live in an age in which it is regarded both as offensive and as false to suggest there is not democratic equality among all kinds of music in their artistic value and among all listeners in their understandings of music. It seems also to be widely held that understanding comes simply as a result of one's giving oneself over to the music (as if there must be something wrong with a work that does not appeal at first hearing). The ideas that there are worthwhile degrees of musical understanding that might be attained only through years of hard work and that there are kinds of music that yield their richest rewards only to listeners prepared to undertake it smack of an intellectual elitism that has become unacceptable, not only in society at large but in the universities. 'Anti-democratic' ideas are rejected not just for music, of course, but across the social and political board, but the case for musical 'democracy' is especially strong, since almost everyone loves and enjoys some kind of music. Nevertheless…many music lovers mistake the enjoyment they experience for the pleasure that would be afforded by deeper levels of understanding." (p.232)

 

Stephen Davies, Themes in the Philosophy of Music (2003)

[lucretius]

On 5/23/2020 at 4:16 AM, Audiophile Neuroscience said:

To do is to be - Nietzsche

 

To be is to do - Kant

 

To be is to be the value of a variable - Quine

 

Do Be Do Be Do - Sinatra

 

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/171748-to-be-is-to-do---socrates-to-do-is

[sphinxsix]

 

How about some really simple life philosophy?

I must admit that when I'm listening to this song I tend to really believe him  

 

 

 

[audiobomber]

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture"

 

"Currently, Martin Mull is the leading candidate for crafter of this maxim. Intriguingly, there exists a family of related sayings that follow a template, and these adages begin in 1918 or earlier."

 

"The earliest statement that QI has located that discusses the inherent difficulty of writing about music and compares it to singing about something is dated February 9, 1918 in the New Republic": 

 

"Strictly considered, writing about music is as illogical as singing about economics. All the other arts can be talked about in the terms of ordinary life and experience. A poem, a statue, a painting or a play is a representation of somebody or something, and can be measurably described (the purely aesthetic values aside) by describing what it represents."

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/11/08/writing-about-music/

[NOMBEDES]

On 5/23/2020 at 1:34 AM, Solstice380 said:

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”  Friedrich Nietzsche. I did a Philosophy independent study on Nietzsche my senior year of undergrad for fun.

 

First time I heard that anyone thought Nietzsche was fun.

[NOMBEDES]

 

I remember when music used to be about social justice, hope and change:  

A tragic roster of poor leadership, endless wars, epic corruption, we are broken and 

there is no hope.

 

Michael Franti  & Spearhead.  Listener Supported

 

Six foot six above sea level
I grab the mic because I like to take you to
Another mental level
Low power frequency radio modulation
The big sound from underground another pirate station
We bring the truth to places truth is never heard before
We bring the sound communication of our tribal war
Dark vision fly by helicopters in the night
Attempt triangulation of our station in the fight
Straight from the bass the deep down low precision
High crime treason we broadcastin' sedission
Like the wall street mornin' afternoon edition
Commandeering airwaves from unknown positions

(chorus)
Live and direct we comin' never pre-recorded
With information that will never be reported
Disregard the mainstream media distorted
Whoop! whoop!
We comin' listener supported
Live and direct we comin' never pre-recorded
With information that will never be reported
Disregard the mainstream media distorted
Whoop! whoop!
We comin' listener supported

[sphinxsix]

24 minutes ago, NOMBEDES said:

 

First time I heard that anyone thought Nietzsche was fun.

 

In comparison to Kant (I had to go through his texts on aesthetics during my first year) he surely was! 

I actually think that probably everything in comparison to Kant is fun..