"Men sang out their feelings long before they were able to speak their thoughts... These utterances were, at first, like the singing of birds and the roaring of many animals and the crooning of babies, exclamative, not communicative--that is, they came forth from an inner craving of the individual without any thought of any fellow-creatures." Otto Jespersen
Singing has been my passion for the past seven years. It has been a way of pushing out emotions from moving to another country and life in general. There is something about music that stirs the soul and connects us to each other. Perhaps that is why mankind has passed the art of singing down from generation to generation.
Naisrín Elsafty - Máire Ní Eidhin
Songs are a way to remember who came before us. The above song is an old Irish song. We still have some of our ancestors songs today and though I rarely hear monks chanting, those chants were incorporated into many of the religious songs that we have today. And what is interesting is that every culture has a different way of singing. English songs sound very different from African songs.
If you look at old myths and legends you can find that singing created so much awe that creatures were sung into existence, men were led to their deaths by song and music helped to guide.
Think about what songs have influenced you over your life. A lullaby, church hymns, nursery rhymes a wordless hum. It can convey hatred or love. A song can make you cry, it can make you laugh.
It may be said that the voice is a simple moving of air through the vocal chords, but it is more than that. The voice can say more about who we are than words can. It is a knowledge that should not be forgotten. We should treasure our songs.
I'm glad that you pointed out the ways that song has influenced mythes, and I thought that it was especially interesting that there are actual myths that creatures were sung into existence.
ReplyDeleteSomehow songs can have the perfect mixture of lyrics and instrument to move something inside of you. My roommate and I were actually just talking about this when "Hallelujah", sung by Jeff Buckley, came up on Pandora. Here is the music video (I would skip to 1:20)..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8AWFf7EAc4&ob=av2e
Anyways, we couldn't put our finger on what it was that we loved so much about this song. Of course, it may just be my roommate and I who love this song so much, but we both agreed that there are some songs that you just have to passionately sing to. Songs can be universal languages. They will withstand time and social barriers.
In my music classes in high school, we would always talk about how music is the "universal language", just like you mentioned. It can touch people's spirits and hearts even if they don't understand the words because of the feelings that the music can create. This may be one reason why music is passed down through generations. I agree with you, Emily, that we shouldn't forget our songs. From them, we can learn about the past and the past people who sang, played, or composed them.
ReplyDeleteEmily and Maddie, thanks for the great songs to listen to! By the way see this post about embedding links, it works for comments and posts! I love that music is the one thing that is so universal that everyone recognises it's power. I think that power can be extended to most art forms, or at least the ones like music, dance, and cinematography that seem to capture their audiences and sweep them along with the emotion of the piece. My friend Josh uses movies to let out his emotions as he has moved across the global as well. Here is one of his funnier pieces.
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