From “Theories, Problems and Suggestions,” The Music of Our Lives, by Kathleen Marie Higgins:
Generalizing to the broader spectrum of musical experience, Feld insists that such nontechnical metaphorical vocabularies are not indications of verbal incompetence. Instead, they point to shared features of musical experience that we all, in practice, recognize:
“When people say “it’s different from…”, “it’s kind of…”, “it sort of reminds me of…”, and things of this sort, they are creating discourse organizations that has locational, categorical, and associational features. When they say, “Well, if I had to name it… I mean… on some level,… for me at least,… you know, I really can’t say but do you know what I mean?…” they are not just tongue-tied, inarticulate, or unable to speak. They are caught in a moment of interpretive time, trying to force awareness to words. They are telling us how much they assume that we understand exactly what they are experiencing. In fact, we do understand exactly what they are experiencing. We take it as socially typical that people can talk this way about music, stringing together expressives, and we assume that this confirms what we are all supposed to know: that at some level, one just cannot say with words what music says without them.
Like, for instance, trying to describe coffee to someone who has never tasted it. Bitter? Earthy? Like dirt? It makes sense only in a (shared or unshared) context.
Tags: Art & Morality, Spring 07
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This reminds me of my introduction to Tom Spanbauer yesterday, when I said that I’m often at a loss of words for how to describe his writing. Like, I guess I could one some formal level (experimental, pathetic [evoking emotion, not the colloquial meaning], purposefully repetitive), but I couldn’t on a “what is it like” level. It seems that this applies to more than just music, but to all art? And all movement, perhaps? Like the affective architecture of a city – sure, we can say what a city looks like (or perhaps, more accurately, a neighborhood or street in a city) — but can we say what it is like? We either speak in clichés (it sucks, it’s bohemian, it’s rustic, etc.), or we’re searching for words. What’s Corvallis like? Shit, I can’t really say unless I compare it to Ames, Iowa. Can I really describe Reel Big Fish unless I compare them to Less Than Jake or something else?
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Mikey – I think you’re right, in that it’s impossible to explicate entirely a complex, situational emotional state of being or view of reality. At best, maybe all we can hope for is that our [reductions, reflections, imitations] of reality leave the dignity of a situation intact, and are generous in providing space for interpretation and ambiguity.
queerfesta, here we come.
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