Life's Soundtrack

As a composer, I've been taught that "music is the heart" and everything else "is the brain." Whether that everything else is the words that are sung with the music, or the movie the music is scoring, the music says what the "truth" and the emotion is. (Incidentally, I wrote a paper about No Country for Old Men, which has about 90 seconds of music -- about 30 of which is non-diegetic -- in the entire film before the credits and said that it is a movie that not only has no music, but it has no heart.)

The example first given to me to illustrate this concept was "Summertime" for Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are happy, "Summertime and the living is easy..." but the music is melancholy and morose. The truth in the plot fits the music.

Portable audio has created a soundtrack by simultaneous juxtaposition of image and audio. This has made things more difficult for artists looking to mix audio and video because simultaneous juxtaposition of the two media is not enough to create a connection between the two. We are conditioned to be able to separate the music in our ears with our environments.

Lately, I've managed to escape this emotional disconnect between music and environment. The strange thing is that when feel and smell are added to the sense of sight, no longer does music influence the mood of everything else as much as everything else can impose its mood upon the music.

It's also nice to be able to listen to music mixed with environmental sounds. Unlike the city, being on lovely Cape Cod has birds that chirp loudly and happily. (Not to mention the fact that I love not needing my volume at its loudest...)

As I was walking today with Maria Schneider in my ears -- a song I've listened to on many-a-walks -- I had many more thoughts on this subject -- about how I've listened to this song in the rain, in busy parks, on desert streets, on the beach, and how its emotion has been different each time. But aside from that, all thoughts are gone. All that remains is the quiet contentment (is that even a word?) and memories of every emotion I've ever felt while listening to this particular song.

That's a pretty full heart...