Blog #9: Different Feelings with Music

  The activity we did in class on Wednesday was very interesting.  It was fun to listen to the different samples of music and then decide what they sounded like and felt like to each student.  For the most part everyone was in agreement about the messages in the music.  These samples were all very different, and I had heard none of them.  Even though everyone in the class agreed on what emotions were conveyed in the songs that doesn't mean everyone in the world would agree with them.  It is amazing how we think of music as a universal language or something that we can all relate to easily, but then everyone can have their own opinions about it and not be wrong.  It is nothing like math where there is only one correct answer.  Music can have many interpretations and is very open-minded.  There is a theory called the Imitation Theory which states that there is never any doubt about what music is trying to express.  I do not agree with this because there are so many different people.  The way they listen to music and how they think about it or experience it culturally can be very different and lead to different emotions felt.  I do believe that the composer had a specific emotion that he or she was going for, but the people that listen to the compositions might feel differently about it.  Music is very open-ended, and I think that is one of the many reasons it is so important in our lives.