Music: An Appreciation

I like having hobbies. They keep me busy. But, the one hobby that is most important to me is music. Music encompasses so many parts of life, I truly feel it makes one a better person. I feel this way about all types of music but this is meant most towards music as an art and not music as entertainment. In other words, I'm talking about "classical" music.

Listening to music can be an emotional experience. Pieces of music can take you on far reaching journeys and tell detailed stories. Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathursta is a prime example of story telling. His tone poems are some of the best, telling the most colorful and expressive stories. Also Sprach Zarathursta is the story of the struggle between man and nature. The beginning of Einleitung starts with a perfect fifth (C-G-C) and then there is a booming C major chord quickly followed by a C minor chord. These two chords represent the morality and immorality in man good and bad. It shows the duality of man, both chords being C but both chords being completely different.

Throughout the piece their is a struggle between C and B and in the end neither one claims dominance. C and B as notes are really just a half step away from each other but as keys they are about as distant as you can get. They are almost on completely opposite ends of the circle of fifths. B has five sharps compared to zero sharps or flats in the key of C.

Also Sprach Zarathursta continues depicting the evolution of man. Each movement shows a different aspect of the development. It covers many specific parts of man's development following the ideas in Friedrich Nietzsche's book by the same name of the tone poem. I find the Von der Wissenschaft (Of Science) movement very interesting because of Strauss' use of a tone sequence fugue. It incorporates all twelve notes of the chromatic scale. The music is like an analysis and organization of nature in other words it is science! The twelve notes represent every tone in music (disregarding microtonality), in other words they represent nature.

Going deeper, you can look at Nietzsche's original text and find its relation to the music. Then you could go even deeper and look at the book's relationship with Zoroaster its original philosophy. Never will all the facets of this piece be understood. You can say this about any piece of music. This is what makes music so wonderful. Something new can always be found in music no matter how old or analyzed it is.

Playing music gives you an even deeper understanding of what is written while also challenging you physically and mentally. I can't play the piano very well. I took lessons for a few months when I was five. It didn't go well. But, I still enjoy finding a piece of music I like and working through it. Recently, I have been playing Debussy's Claire de lune (meaning moonlight). Though completely over played, it still has a lot of meaning for me. Practicing and playing through this piece makes me feel closer to the music and closer to Debussy. I like to imagine where he was when he was writing this and what he was thinking.

Music is challenging. It requires quite a bit of intellect with dedication but music is also very rewarding. A piece of music can stir up emotions and bring back memories. Unlike other forms of art it never takes a solid form. It is a movement through time, always changing. Just like music never sounds the same you also will never hear it the same way. If you listen to a song at different points in your life it will have different meanings to you and you will analyze it in different ways. Music is part of human nature and should never be underestimated.