Major Eyeswater wrote:I have to say that eastern music does sound a little alien to me and in some ways it just sounds 'Eastern' and I'm sure I'm missing out on something that only a person from that culture can fully grasp.
I'm not Chinese, but I am a 'fan' of
most of the Ancient Chinese philosophies.
Only guessing here, but I would thinkk that most Chinese music echoes from martial arts.
When I hear [stereo]typical music of Eastern cultures, my mind conjures up images of martial combat or martial art movements - typically, Tai Chi movements.
I have studied various martial arts (predominently Kung Fu), and the movements and stances are based upon the animal kingdom - preying mantis, fighting eagle, and so on - indeed, the world-reknown Chinese fighting Dragon and Lion dances accompany those [stereo]typical eastern sounds.
The 'encounter' stage of the dance is portrayed in broken sounds - caution, intrigue, awareness.
The 'battle' stage of the dance portrayed in flurries of instruments.
The 'stand-off' stage, and so on.
I wonder if we took the time to fully understand the 'story' behind the dance (and so the music that accompanies it), we would better appreciate the tones and inflection that we sometimes find baffling.
After all, if I listened to Chinese music on its own, it wouldn't make as much sense as it would if I listened to the same peice whilst a team of dancers acted out the 'story' in front of me.
Beethoven's 'Pastoral Suite' has been explained to us - at school probably - and so the imagery is easy to associate. Just as the 'William Tell Overture', or 'The Flight of The Valkyrie' invokes imagery for us, the Eastern 'equivolents' (if they were shown explained to us) would invoke respective imagery.
Major Eyeswater, get yourself copies of the following DVDs, and then the music might make more sense:
'Hero' - stars Jet Li, and tells the story of a fearless warrior who seeks vengeance against the fearsome army that massacred his people. The visuals are stunning, and the music that accompanies it tells the story as well as the imagery.
'Kung Fu Hustsle' - largely a funny movie, but the music that goes with the fight scenes is tradditional music, and you'll begin to make sense of the sounds that you hear.
'House of Flying daggers' - again, the music is tradditional and places the imagery within you.
It about translation as much as anything, I guess - we in the West are ignorant of [not just] Chinese mythology and history, and cannot therefore appreciate the story that the music is telling.
I'm going to start rambling now lmao
We humans respond to beat and rythmn.
The first sounds we hear are those of our mother's heartbeat.
When we are born, we don't understand language, but we do respond to tones - voices of happiness are high pitched, whilst sounds of disapproval are lower tones. As we grow older, those mandates apply throughout.
The booming tones of Holst's 'Mars, The Bringer of War' (from 'The Planets'...one of my personal favourites) are low and foreboding.
Whilst 'Peter's theme', from 'Peter and The Wolf' (another favourite), is chirpy and happy.
As too is 'The Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy', from 'The Nutcracker Suite' - a peice of music that invokes images of fairies (unsurprisingly) prancing around gaily dressed in tutus and wings.
Also, the beats-per-minute (BPM) of music can affect our heart rates and bodily responses.
Here's a little trick one can do with their female partner:
Get a big ass bass speaker, ask your lady to stand facing the speaker, and play a tone of frequency 32Hz and see what happens hehehehehehehehehehehehehe
Another response to music.
Try eating your dinner slowly whilst listing to something of 160BPM....or walking through a store casually whilst upbeat music is playing.
When we are down, we tend to listen to music that reflects that mood...soppy love ballads, etc...we have all done it!
When we are upbeat, we want our music to echo that euphoria.
In the past, drums were used to send messages.
And, a tone of 20Hz will kill you.
Res...
:-) 
