Learn & Tell

Set the Gearshift: Phish as Catalyst to Ecstasy

Table of Contents

How does music move us to ecstasy? The answer is: Nobody knows. (And do we really need to know?) But, for the thinkers out there, here’s a possibility…

[Throughout this essay, titles of songs will be capitalized and in quotes (ie. “My Soul”). However, unless obviously intended as a reference to a song, these are meant to be read simply as words in the sentence.]

3. What is Music?

Music is an ethereal art that takes place internally. As Jourdain puts it, “rather than portray events in the world beyond our skin, music seems to reenact the experience ‘within’ the body” (293). This makes music, because of its intangibility, more subjective than other arts. As Eduard Hanslick points out, “Music alone is unable, apparently, to adopt [the] objective mode of procedure” (17). Objectively, based on our current laws of reality, this piece of paper contains all of the colors of the visible spectrum (producing what we call “white”), independent of you looking at it. Volcanic lava radiates heat whether you touch it or not. The car alarm with the “Horn” blaring in the distance is sending out sound waves whether you are there to be annoyed by them or not. But “sound” is not “music.” “Music” is a human construct.

One might argue that the sound of a babbling brook, or the chirping of a “Mockingbird,” is musical. And they would not be wrong in their opinion. But only in this nature lover’s mind can they be deemed “musical.” In reality, the sound of the brook, or the song of the bird, is merely a set of waves traveling through space. Labeling these combinations of sounds “musical” is a human phenomenon. Some waves coalesce more or less readily with other waves, as if two rocks are dropped into a still pool and the ripples then combine or clash, but only in our human imagination is that convergence or divergence “musical.” This is why there are so many varieties of music, because harmony is so subjective.

In a review of Roger Scruton, Buhler points out that “Scruton is surely correct to emphasize that music, unlike sound, is an ‘intentional object of musical perception’ (78)…[that one should] be careful not to commit the error of mistaking sound for music, that is the material substrate for the ideal object” (2). Scruton says here that we should not mistake the statue of the beautiful woman for the beautiful woman. We should not confuse the earthly substance (the sound waves) with the ideal vision (the music).

Albert Einstein said that “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Understanding the role of the imagination as we listen to music is vitally important in discovering how music cna move us to ecstasy. Buhler states that “the experience of sound as music depends radically on our imagining the sound as something other than mere sound” (2). Whether the bird has an imagination and can perceive its own son as musical is an entirely different debate. However, most theorists agree (but I do not), that “music is possible only in very intelligent brains” (Jourdain 307), including even the least intelligent, but human, beings. Why then does music seem to have a soothing effect on some animals?

Language works with our imagination also, but only through the use of visible symbols. As compared to language, “music mimics experience rather than symbolize it…It carefully replicates the temporal patterns of interior feeling, surging in pitch or volume as they surge, ebbing as they ebb” (Jourdain 296). Music requires less conscious processing; it is more subconscious. Grillparzer says the difference between music and poetry is that “music primarly affects the senses and, after rousing the emotions, reaches the intellect last of all…[where] poetry…first raises up an idea which in turn excites the emotions” (Hanslick 17). Music recreates emotional states within the listener, bypassing the intellect. But when reading, one must comprehend the idea being presented before an emotion can surface, which is why, to appeal to your emotions directly, I should have written this essay in a musical format! Mendelssohn believed music more powerful than words, that “the thoughts that are expressed to [him] by music…are not too indefinite to be put into words, but on the contrary too definite” (295). Mendelssohn would understand my angst in trying to describe the “definite” feelings Phish rouses in me.

The reason I must use language (which has a bit of objectivity) in this exploration of music, as opposed to a musical score, is because music is entirely subjective and emotional. I am trying to explore logically. If I composed a musical score to present my case, my every point would be translated into something completely different by each listener’s impassioned response, rather than the concrete symbols of language. And, since “definite feelings and emotions are unsusceptible of being embodied in music” (Hanslick 33), there would be endless ways to interpret my composition. Stravinsky agrees, saying that “music is, by its very nature, powerless to ‘express’ anything at all, whether a feeling, an attitude of mind, a psychological mood, a phenomenon of nature” (Aronson 58). Another reason I must use language is that it can be translated into other languages, whereas music is not so translatable due to cultural differences in perception.

The emotions I ascribe to Phish are placed there by my imagination, which has been shaped by my personal life experiences, especially the Western culture in which I live. Music can resemble our physical experessions (like fear or excitement) as when a melody or tempo mimics the characteristics of speech and gesture (such as pitch and speed) that are associated with specific emotions (Serafine 13). For example, in Western culture, the voice softens and is quieter when expressing grief and sad music imitates these actions by slowing down; music that is to convey excitement is usually faster. Consonance and dissonance, described earlier with two ripples in a pond, occur naturally, but whether these properties are pleasant or not is culture-specific. Another example of the major influence of culture is the case of the minor triad (minor chords), which in Western culture are considered sad or melancholy, but in the culture of Indonesia the opposite is true. In other cultures such as that of Indonesia, loud clanging bells and cymbals are played at a funeral, whereas the West mourns with somber organ music.

Although what constitutes emotion-appropriate music is different the world over (and even within our own nation), there are universal similarities regarding beliefs in the power of music. Whether you use Phish, Neil Diamond, Shania Twain, Ravi Shakar, or WuTang Clan to inflame your emtions, we must remember that our culture dictates our subconscious standards, and that there is no universal right or wrong. As Meyer points out, “…no particular connotation is an inevitable product of a given musical organization [such as the minor triad or funeral music], since the association of a specific musical organization with a particular referential experience depends upon the beliefs and attitudes of the culture toward the experience. However, once the beliefs of the culture are understood, most associations appear to possess a certain naturalness because the experiences associated are in some sense similar” (262).

Once you understand the post-60s, folky, rockin’, groovy, funky culture in which I was raised, and my personal experiences within that culture, it is not difficult to understand my love for Phish. The world over, music lovers are individual in their upbringing, yet they are tied together by a common bond, for, as Walker concludes, “in practically all cultures, music, more than other artforms, has held a unique place in the human quest to rise above the immediate environment…Music has traditionally been regarded as both the key to knowledge and the source of that knowledge itself” (213). Although there is no objective, universal rule regarding what constitutes a powerful chord progression, it is evident that music is universally revered.

Coming Next: The Evolution of Music in Humans