Music as explained by the chapter Is vital to our lives, and growth. Music can have many inspirations, such as natural sounds. I personally do enjoy these natural sounds, not so much as the music that imitates them though. I find these natural sounds to be very soothing and often use them to fall asleep. Besides from that I take an appreciation to the variety of types of music there are. The says that there are endless varieties, which is truly amazing. With the humanities, we are often encouraged to appreciate that we all have our own different preferences and ideas, and music is an easy way to notice the differences among peoples tastes.
The first quote from the text that I wanted to speak about was "is it possible to imagine what life would be like without it" it referring to music in this case (page 139). This quote does not have a large importance or stand out very much, but I think it is an important question to ask. I myself could not imagine life without music. I do at times appreciate silence, or just the sounds of nature. However, life without music would be almost boring to me. The main times I listen to music are when I am driving, and I have to drive long distances quite frequently. All of high school I would drive an hour each way to my gym. I do not know how I would get through all that driving if I couldn't listen to music. I'm sure there are people out there that would say they could easily live without music, but I am certainly not one of them.
The next quote I liked was, "a new force was born that provided a way for emotions to be expressed, released, and controlled" (page 142). I have always known that music could tell stories, but knowing that for the creator it is actually a form of emotional regulation is very interesting. My personal favorite genre of music is country. I think this is because compared to the type of music most of my friends listen to, there is more of an emotional feel to it. I have not always realized that it was the musician releasing their emotions, but it does make sense and makes the stories being told resonate better. The surrounding text of this quote talks about rhythm. Being able to pair rhythm with emotion to create these works of art that we know as music is beautiful. Being able to share your emotions with others Is not something that everyone is able to do, let alone finding a rhythm that goes along with it. Just deepens my appreciation for music even more. Which seems to be a recurring trend with the topics in this book. I always thought I understood and appreciated the things in my everyday life, but learning more about them and their backgrounds makes me realize that I really did not.
The last quote that I would like to highlight was "Bach was born in a Germany that did not regard music as an art form" (page 147). I only want to talk about this because I think it is crazy. I understand how they could view music as a form of entertainment, but solely as that and not an art form at all? I know the music we listen to today is not even close to the same as the music they were listening to in the 1600-1700's. But I still cannot understand how it would not be seen as an art form. Music at that point in time would still have been a form of expression. Which is sort of the definition of art. So I really cannot understand how they did not classify it as an art form. In class this past Thursday it was brought up a few times what certain artists would have to say if they were still around today, and I really wonder what Germans of that time period would have to say about this topic if they were here right now as well.
Janaro, R. P., & Altshuler, T. C. (2017). The Art of Being Human: The humanities as a technique for living (11th ed.). Pearson.
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