Functions of Music
My final project is based on my interview with my roommate Marla and centered on the question of “What are the functions of music?” Specifically, I seek to engage with the theme of a universal musicality (musicality meaning both presence and sound) through various forms of media. I want to engage with how people write about music in poetry and short stories. I want to engage with how people visually represent music. I want to engage with how films use music to enhance the plot and invoke audience emotions. And I want to analyze the fundamental aspects of music such as beat, rhythm, pitch, and timbre. As such, my final project will focus on and analyze music through the use of literature, ethnography, visual arts, creative writing, and film. Though I’m still thinking through what platform I want this project to be on, I’m currently learning towards the class blog post because it keeps everything on the same page. However, I realize that this project will be received by a wider audience so I also have to consider presentation and think about what it would feel like to read a long blog post. Additionally, I am still thinking through what genre I want this project to be. Is it best if I represent music in a story, in a poem, as a film? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each genre?
At this moment, I’m thinking about creating a short film about music and pairing it with a short story about music’s origins. Some of my concerns are creating a more precise research question; limiting music to a specific genre, time period, and/or location; and incorporating as many voices in this story as I possibly can. My personal goal of this project is to create a conversation that transcends the colonial and globalized interpretation, allowing for the recognition and appreciation of non-American music. My academic goal is to balance being informational and being critical; I have my own opinions about music and its functions, but I want to create a neutral piece that advances non-American music. Overall, I’m looking forward to this project.
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Gabby, this reminds me of sound visualizers… when I got my first laptop, I remember using apple’s sound visualizer and trying out al of my CDs to see what would come through. I remember from your presentation of the interview that Marla talked about music as inescapable or omnipresent, so I can see a clips of soundscapes from people walking in their neighborhoods intermingled with different genres and recording styles (e.g., live or studio) music, fading in and out. Maybe the soundtrack will stay on as the background to the text… Whatever you create, I’m looking forward to engaging with your project!!
This seems like a really interesting and important project! The idea of transcending the colonial and western understanding of music through the use of literature and film is really engaging. I am curious about this “translation” process that occurs when we attempt to represent music in a non-audio medium. I would be interested to see the sorts of things that are lost (and gained) in this process.
Gabby! This is such a fascinating topic and very excited to see what you produce with all these interesting thoughts you have. Just some of my thoughts – I think it would be really interesting (for you and/or Marla) to curate a playlist as an element of your final project. You could also overlay voice/sound/poetry/music/interviews in assembling all your multi-modal elements.
Gabby, I think this is a really interesting project, particularly because you are seeking to understand how audio comes to life for listeners. I like that you are trying to include aspects of music’s different meanings across the globe through the unique medium of film. Do you intend to include visual representations of music? Maybe an interview of how a participant engages with/makes music? I am curious and excited to see how your short film will turn out.
This is an awesome idea! Reading about how you want to shed more appreciation for non-American music made me think of the map (ArchGIS?) platform that was shown in class. It could be cool to have that global interactive medium and then plot music geographically and let people explore it that way. But I’m sure this project will end up taking on many different forms! To your question about which genre you should represent music, that’s tough because no one genre could fully contain it, so maybe doing more than one would be more fitting. It does seem like a lot of work, though, so I’m curious which specific aspect of music you’re going to explore first. Either way, looking forward to everything that you create!
I really love this, especially since it is a topic you are so passionate about! I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s done. It might be cool to add more visual elements if possible, like Ife said, but this is just a really cool project and I can’t wait to see the end result