Depth in Music

In the words of the great Gustav Mahler, "If a composer could say what he had to say in words, he would not bother trying to say it in music." This statement is too true. Words almost can't express how true those words are. Music is not only a simple rhythm, series of notes on a page, a progression of chords, a key signature, or a variety of instruments playing at the peak of their perfection. It is more than that. Much more. It's even more than words can describe. Two words in which I feel are very well associated and come close to what music is, are message and passion. Both are vital components to, what I think, successful composers and the reason as to why some music is considered great.

Music has to have some underlying message of expression through the composer. Meaning, that the composer wants to tell the audience and the musicians playing, something more than what is heard through the sound produced. Knowing the message portrayed through the piece often helps the musicians understand how to play and puts them in the mindset of the composer. This will help emulate not only the composer's message, but gives the musicians a common ground that they can relate with the composer. As a musician I like to know the reason as to why a piece was written. If something sounds sad in a piece, then why so sad? Did someone close to the composer die? Was it just a rough time for them in general? If a piece is jovial or strong in nature, did that composer accomplish something prior to writing that specific piece? These are some of the questions that entice me to play music.

This interest came about when a quartet of mine was playing Smetana's first string quartet. The piece is morbid and at the same time displays beauty and conflict. Our instructor wanted us to look up his life for this specific reason as to why it sounded this way. It turns out that the poor guy wrote this towards the end of his life, before dying of syphilis and suffering a bad case of tinnitus. Tinnitus is a disease of having a constant high pitched sound in your ear, similar as to the idea that when people's ears "burn" they are talked about in conversation. Imagine that sound louder and constant in your head. This was enough evidence to me as to why he wrote the piece. One other piece of interest the composer can put in music is sounds he or she can hear. Smetana amazingly did this. He put the pitch of what he heard from his tinnitus into the music, as a climax point. Listening to it now and having played it last year, I still find it amazing that he was able to do that. From this, I guess one could conclude that music helps people deal with their problems as well as acknowledging something bad or good in their life.

Music also is comprised of passion alongside with the composer's message. The two almost go together when described in music. Passion is close to reason, but is different from it as well. Passion is more. It is the desire for creating or composing music. The want, need, and undying cause for this desire is the composer's passion. Passion also is attributed to the musicians making the music the composer made. As stated earlier, the musicians playing need to understand the composer's message so that they can relate to what the composer wrote about. Again, whether it be something happy or sad. Having this ability to relate to the composer's message separates a musician from a great musician.

Both ideas of a message and passion in music, literally, go hand-in-hand. They hold hands while moving through the score of the music, dwelling in every whole note, accent, dynamic, 32nd note run, chord, lyric, crescendo, decrescendo, quarter note rest, key change, you name it, all the way to the double bar at the end of the piece. It may even affect us after the double bar. A piece's message may remind us of an event in our life that we won't forget, or even remind us of memories we want to forget. Therefore, effecting us even after the double bar.

Music is a persistent component in our lives, affecting us, motivating us, making us think. Mahler was right. In the end, words can't reach the same amount of emotive expression music can recreate.

Hopefully my words explained my thoughts well enough on this topic, but obviously not as well as music would.