Emotional while playing...

For listeners to experience goosebumps and chills is desirable but a performer benefits from a calm focus.

I agree with Kevin on this one. For those familiar with star trek, you've just about got to be like a vulcan, and be in complete control of your emotions when playing, or you'll end up falling prey to them, and performance quality will suffer.

Performing music is like acting. You've got to not only have control of your own emotions, but must also be able to input the author's intended emotions. It's extremely easy to get caught up in the secondary emotions you experience when performing, particularly when you're playing well, and it's a piece you enjoy playing and hearing.

"I consider that music, by its very nature, is essentially powerless to express anything at all, whether a feeling, an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a phenomenon of nature..... Expression has never been an inherent property of music and that is by no means the purpose of its existence. If, as is nearly always the case, music appears to express something, this is only an illusion and NOT a reality."

Igor Stravinsky

" If, as is nearly always the case, music appears to express something, this is only an illusion and NOT a reality." - Igor

Yeah - Lots of stuff here.. "powerless to express anything at all" "only an illusion and NOT a reality." -

Who can argue with any of that at face value - the same can be said about everything - when the word "reality" is looked at, it is meaningless.

BUT - Of all our "things" whether "real" or "illusory" Music must surely be rated as one thing which gets to most peoples emotions more than anything else.. And in this regard I must utterly disagree with  Igor Stravinsky. I strongly disagree with statement "music, by its very nature" - We do not have enough understanding, IMO, of its "nature" to make any assertions about what it "can" and "cannot" do.

I think that we have evolved with music - long before we were creating it.. I think that music probably started with birds, when our closest ancestors were furry little creatures scurrying in the undergrowth - We have been saturated in it all through our development and "progression".

 I think it likely that music is embedded in our neurological wiring - is as much a part of who or what we are as our ego's or sense of self..

And I suspect that it is more closely linked to our emotions than anything else we can identify.

Fred.

Fred: "I think that music probably started with birds, when our closest ancestors were furry little creatures scurrying in the undergrowth...."

Wait a minute!! Our "ancestors" were furry little critters? Does that mean we EVOLVED and weren't created by baby Jesus ten thousand years ago?

"So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning."  Aaron Copland

"Music is the eye of the ear" Thomas Draxe (died 1618)

"Music is the moonlight in the gloomy night of life."  Jean Paul (1763 - 1825)

"Music is the only noise for which one is obliged to pay." Alexandre Dumas

"Wait a minute!! Our "ancestors" were furry little critters? Does that mean we EVOLVED and weren't created by baby Jesus ten thousand years ago?" - Coalport

LOL ;-) .. You want someone to bite, dont you? We certainly have that in common! - Stirr things up a little, get people to think - or perhaps even better, get them to fight! ;-)

Well, I aint takin the bait - got into enough trouble on this thread already, what with being mistaken for a wayward moderator and all that!

- I actually think there is a lot more to music than we realise.. If I was young, and was then the nerd I am now, I would probably direct my energies to exploring the "workings" of music.. Its bird song which facinates me most - IMO, everything is there - rythm, pitch, massive "collaboration" of thousands of entities all engaging in an astounding "composition" or "creation" every morning - This "composition" following the sun across our planet - Possibly the purest act of harmonious "worship" (well, it certainly beats any "call to prayer" I have ever encountered! ;-)..

Anyway - Im going to talk about evolution and bird song now - If you dont like either, dont read the following! ;-)

And "we" have been exposed to this for far longer than 10k years! - It is likely that there were birds in large numbers at the end of the Mesozoic era - about 65 million years ago - and modern humans date back about 200,000 years it seems..

We dont know when the dawn chorus started (sounds dont become fossils!) - but primates diverged from other mammals at least 55 million years ago.. It is highly likely, IMO, that over the majority of our evolution to humanity, and our evolution / development as humans, we have been listening to music created by the birds.

How "musical" is bird song? - I believe (and I accept that this is entirely due to my subjective expierience) that it is loaded with emotional triggers.. No two dawns are the same - The coming weather certainly changes the "tune" for one thing - But other events which transpire and which dont make sense also seem to be "encoded" in the song. If the song is bright and brisk it seems to bode well for the day - If it is heavy, slow and moody, something grim seems to happen.

And for me, bird song is utterly musical - Complex, harmonic, melodious, it is, to me, a "composition" composed of specific "samples" contributed by each bird at exactly the right moment - Most birds repeat their "core" phrase at each performance, but some elaborate and improvise on this phrase, at times creating a new core phrase which they introduce in the next performance and one gets to recognise the truly gifted individuals (often blackbirds) who can make breathtaking contributions.. And something keeps the timing.. Only the wood pidgeons seem to ignore this timing (or perhaps I am just not understanding their contribution - perhaps I just dont "get it" - Sometimes I do - Sometimes they act as an essential component - but often they overplay their part and are assynchronous - sometimes I wonder if they have a hearing problem...)

I dont believe any human composer has ever touched the greatness of the dawn chorus.

Fred.

Sitting outside listening to birds singing has indeniably engaged my mind to new song creations (and also to my theremin interpretation of certain passages i play)!

Especially the Cardinal. It's not ample, but there is one Cardinal around my house that has the most powerful and determined chant. And he is beautiful to boot. *swoon*

At our old house, we had a pair of Cardinals nesting in a bush just outside one of our screened in porch windows, and they are beautiful to watch and listen to.

At our new place, we have a pair of doves that while subdued, are one of the most calming voices I've heard. Unfortunately, we also have some ravens. That is not the sound I want to hear while peacefully sipping my coffee and enjoying the morning.

Coooooooo. Trillllllll. SCREEEEEEEEEEECH!!!

Kind of reminds me of the "Psycho" theme. 

Not to derail the bird lovers serenade, but...

Perhaps Mr. Stravinsky possesses some special insight that we lack, however by those statements it's hard to believe he is a person that has a special relationship with music at all.  I certainly don't understand it.

However, after pondering it for a while, this is the conclusion that I've come to.

Perhaps, he's saying that music itself, which is (usually) some form of organized sound, has no power of it's own to emote.  It is our perception of and intellectual and emotional reaction to the sound which gives it magical powers.