# What Does Music Mean to You?



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

The mammoth question.

Music is a part of almost everyone's life, with a few strange exceptions (I'm looking at you, Freud!), but it means very different things to different people. I think most people on the street might answer that it's "fun" or that it "brings people together", but - good as these reasons are - as lovers of classical music, and as people who sought out an internet forum on the subject, I think there is scope for it to mean many other things to us.

So, what does it mean to you?

Personally, there is whole host of answers I could give, but the _first_ to come to mind is always that music gives me a solid emotional foundation and a sense of emotional regulation. One of my most heartfelt moments with music was when I was horribly depressed in my late adolescence and found more solace in Brahms's 3rd Symphony than I ever had anywhere else - in books, in nature, or in other people.

I'm now in a very different position emotionally (less subject to the dark extremes I experienced then), but I still feel the most amazing emotional shifts whenever I listen to any piece of music. I don't mean in simply recognising the sorrow or jubilance of a piece; it is actually like taking a drug. I can alter my sense of perspective, my sense of time, my sense of distance, and, ultimately, my mood. It's always fascinating to me as well how, at the very instant I stop listening or turn the music off, I feel like I have abruptly landed in a harsh, cold reality again. But I can always turn it back on.


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

It is something that I enjoy.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I'm mostly restraining to go too far in wondering about these things. I don't try to answer question like "what", "why" or "in what way" after I gained assurance that whatever and whyever, it's incredibly good and positive.

Music is manifestation of beauty and experiencing beauty is my major need. Sometimes I get the feeling, while/after listening, that I've just made my life worth living, just to experience something like that and melt in such noble magnificence is good reason to live. Of course it doesn't have so much force to completely fill one's life but it will make poor life bearable and good life it shall enrich. 

It has another aspect for me since music isn't just something that I do experience as a listener but it's also an art to which I've devoted my life. So the music marks my goals and leads my deeds, all this miserable picture of my current life was shaped by music, all key decisions which made my life what it is at this moment were caused by it. "Music" is my answer for "what's your mission on earth?" question, it's this mysterious call which determines your path as strongly as desire of personal happiness.


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## myaskovsky2002 (Oct 3, 2010)

All (in) my life.

Martin


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

For me music means a lifetime of exploration. Every new symphony, piano sonata, string quartet, song, what have you is uncharted territory. Uncharted territory that I plan to map out, travel to, explore, and then PILAGE AND PLUNDER THE LAND FOR ALL ITS TREASURE! Sometimes, in the case of a Beethoven string quartet or something similar, I end up finding GOLD DABLOONS! Sometimes though, I accidentally end up on some small island, such as Beiber island. And when you plunder the land there, all you end up finding is buried dog poo. 

:lol: can you tell I'm feeling theatrical today?


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Who ever said music meant to me?!? :scold:


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)

One unique feature for me is that music can literally be part of me almost anywhere and anytime. It is unique in that it knows no physical boundaries. I can listen to it and read about it when I'm on the ground or flying high in a plane, unlike other hobbies that I cannot always bring with me everywhere. Its variety is boundless; Monterverdi to Rautavaara, whatever. And I'm in control of it in that I can explore whatever aspect of it at my pace, and allocate whatever resource when I'm ready (i.e. time and money are the two main ones that come to mind). I think it's the near perfect hobby.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Music is a kind of escape for me as well, as some of you have said. It's also just been a natural part of my life, classical as well as other things like jazz. I'm not a musician, but know some of them to various degrees, so it's part of my life, they're part of my life. My mother has played various instruments as a hobby and my father was into music as well, both had relatives who were musicians. I think it does bring me together with people. I especially like concerts, I always thought that hearing the music live is the "real" thing in a way. Music for me is also linked with my interest in history, esp. Modern history (eg. after Napoleonic era). So basically to me it's about enjoyment, going into other worlds/emotional journeys, about coming together with other music lovers and also about the history of music and the composer's lives, inspiration, etc...


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Music is the only other language besides English that truly interests me. It's as simple as that.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Music, like love, is a gestalt. It can be defined, quantized and analyzed, but none of these activities ever get to the root of or lessen its impact on the human condition. I don't think of it as a language, but as something more primal, more innate than words. It massages a part of the consciousness that words cannot reach. 

Of course I find this to be true only for music of the western world. If I had been raised elsewhere I might say the same about other music traditions, but as it is, they do not have this same effect on me.


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## Ravellian (Aug 17, 2009)

It is perhaps the deepest and most profound vehicle for human creativity that has ever existed in the history of the universe.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I think this should have been a poll.


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Hilltroll72 said:


> I think this should have been a poll.


Everything is a poll in your world, isn't it?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Dodecaplex said:


> Everything is a poll in your world, isn't it?


Maybe, maybe not. Why don't you initiate a poll on the probable contents of my world?

ut:


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## hawk (Oct 1, 2007)

I think of music as One of the Voices of Life~
I hear Music in the machines that we make and use
I hear Music in the rustling of Leaves
I hear music in the movement of Human-Breath, Heartbeat, Walk...
I hear Music in the Chirping of Bird, the Song of Whale,the Buzz of Insect
I hear Music in the splash of Water, falling of Rain
I hear Music as One of the Voices of Life~
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I may have shared this story in the past here-

While waiting for a professor, who had invited me to chat with his ethnomusciology students, I observed passersby walking with cell phone,mp3 players firmly attached to their ears. I found it fascinating to see how little they interacted with each other. This was at a university in Boston Mass so it was quite a busy area....

When talking with the students I asked them "how are you able to hear the music with those things in your ears", refering to earbuds? A few students looked at me like I was a caveman and one actually got brave enough to describe that earbuds were just mini headphones and the music came through them 

I asked what about the music of others voices or the rhythms of machines and footsteps? The silience and look on the groups faces was pricless and again one student was brave enough to say that until that point they hadn't considered the music of life but that they would use their earbuds less....


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## Vesteralen (Jul 14, 2011)

I stayed away from this thread for a while, but now that I've opened it and read your responses, I'm glad I did. It's really a great question, Polednice.

For me -

Music is a solitary experience - a world within a world.
Music is a shared experience - I share with the composer, with a fellow listener, with a forum of poeple who just want to talk about it.
Music is self-expression.
Music is exercise.
Music is an outlet for my collecting habit.
Music is a centerpiece.
Music is a counterpart to activity.
Music is background.
Music is something I'm afraid of playing too loud for other people.
Music is something I can immerse myself in.
Music is something that is as fun to read about as it is to hear.
Music is time.
Music is a sense of eternity.
Music is a gift.
but,
Music is not the purpose of life.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

Music for me is primarily about experiencing and appreciating beauty. I am much less interested in the exploration of sounds, and therefore, have less of an attachment to some types of music. In other threads there has been some discussion of how music directly reaches fundamental emotional centers of the brain in ways that vision, for example, does not. Music seems to combine enough complexity with direct beauty in a way that moves me more than almost any other activity.


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## AlexW (Jul 17, 2011)

Music is something that is so emotional to me. It really speaks to my inner soul. Just through the passion behind the notes, I can feel everything and anything in the world. I love that!


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## TrazomGangflow (Sep 9, 2011)

Music, along with being a source of happiness and enjoyment, is like a storage device. Whenever I listen to a very powerful or memorable piece of music I can think back to the time in my life when I listened to that song most. Classical music has this effect more than modern music though. That is one reason why it has become my favorite after trying almost every style of music.


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