Music a quest or passion?

[Spectral Morn]

Hi Mr C

To answer the title question YES....YES. Both a quest and a passion. A quest to find as much new music that I may have missed or just don't know about and both a passion and a quest to do so....perhaps its the Hunter/gather in us/me/men. And there is both in listening to it and perfecting a system to listen to it on. It is however to serve my love of music that I do all these things.

Well music for me is all about pleasure. Its the way a piece can transport you to a different place, time, emotional memory or mood. Music has that ability to generate extreme emotions, joy, pain, sadness, euphoria and enhance or change your mood/s. Music can also generate extreme negative reactions. Why should this be so in some and not in others. I don't know I know what I like and what I don't. I have sometimes re-visted something I once didn't like and found myself liking it, but generally if I hate something I usually stay that way. Trust me I do try to work on most things that perhaps have artistic merit. I will give an example Sigor Ros. I love some of their music but other bits is discordant noise. I have tried hard to find away of appreciating all of it and I can't. I take the bad with the good and skip what I don't like.

A trend/tendency does exist within me in that I like music that builds from a simple start and ends in pomp. This probably explains why I love a lot of symphonic music. I am thinking of Prog rock, electronica and dance music and In classical music say the like of adagios by Barber etc you know the type of thing. I love a strong melody and if its full of keyboard(this can be electronic or say an organ) parts. If its got a strong tune I will usually like it.

I love to be carried away on a wave of sensual sound...when I was a kid I heard the like of Holsts Planets (love all of it but Jupiter is a strong fave as is Mars), I also like Vaughn Williams. Elgars Enigma is a great example of the kind of structure I love in music and as I wrote earlier I tend to gravitate toward similar in other genre. If I said Kansas Hopelessly Human John will know what I mean, or Pat Metheny September 13th.

Above all for me music must have some structure and flow...I struggle with a lot of avant garde music.

For me music is a kind/type of aural sensuality. I could not live without it. For me music is a drug (the only one I take) and I could not live without it.

Sound quality is important as bad sound can ruin or defuse the experience...but interestingly the sound/vibe of a track can rise above this. I find myself lost in rapture listening to a tune on the radio or a You Tube clip. So sound quality is not always vital. I suppose it depends on how your brain is working at that moment in time. Is it about the sound or the music. Frankly I think this is why many can live with low-Fi sound.

Some questions still to be answered there....I don't know. Patterns of sound matching the brain patterns maybe. Sound, I think I am right in saying can alter brain waves. Maybe the music we like finds a match in the way our minds are wired and process data......anyone care to have a go at that ?

Perhaps music appreciation is based on our personality types and mix of them. Why do some people just not get it at all ?

Music which does not agree with you will put you/me in a bad mood, create irritation and ruin things. I can't think of an example now but bad music in movies...music which just does not fit.

Regards D S D L----Neil