|
Grex > Oldmusic > #190: Music that best describes the human spirit | |
|
| Author |
Message |
steve
|
|
Music that best describes the human spirit
| 
May 10 20:20 UTC 2005 |
If you were to present one kind of music to non-human itelligence,
what would it be? The limitation is that it must fit within 64M of
storage. I believe that a stock wave format is what the encoding
would be. Given that I think we're looking at a length of 9 minutes.
Anything is possible, but what might best describe humanity?
The reasons behind this question will explained later.
|
| 18 responses total. |
rcurl
|
|
response 1 of 18:
|
May 10 20:30 UTC 2005 |
What does the first sentence (question) mean? What kind of "non-human
intelligence"? That of a worm, or an ape, and how would it be "presented"?
|
twenex
|
|
response 2 of 18:
|
May 10 20:33 UTC 2005 |
Rane's Credo: Question Everything, except my own Know-It-All-Ness.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 3 of 18:
|
May 10 20:55 UTC 2005 |
re #1, 2: Well, I can think of one tiresome duet that I wouldn't consider.
re #0:
> Anything is possible, but what might best describe humanity?
What might best describe humanity, or what would I choose to present?
Maybe "best describes" isn't what one would willingly choose.
I'm sure this choice is pretty cliched, but upon reflection I believe
I would choose the Ode to Joy movement from Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
My reasoning:
1) it's moving (by human standards)
2) its sentiment (again by human standards) is positive and
uplifting and the music is dynamic and exciting.
3) it contains both musical instrumentation and human voices,
(as performed, usually both male and female) giving the
recipient(s) a chance to hear a wider range of musical
expression.
4) it's historically significant in the development of human
music.
5) Beethoven rocks.
|
happyboy
|
|
response 4 of 18:
|
May 10 21:39 UTC 2005 |
i think humanity could be summed up by just about any brittany
spears recording, at least american mainstream humanity.
would it be possible to put a jpg of some fastfood trash
blowing around the parking lot of a stripmall next to a clearcut
on the olympic penn. on it?
|
cyklone
|
|
response 5 of 18:
|
May 10 22:58 UTC 2005 |
Weren't Bach and the Beatles the choice already blasted into space?
|
rcurl
|
|
response 6 of 18:
|
May 10 23:09 UTC 2005 |
Jeffrey's credo: dump on Rane?
Re #3: I've gotten totally tired of Beethoven's 9th. Loud and repetitive.
I did, however, play his 6th so much when I was in my 20's that I can identify
it from hearing any couple of bars.
I don't think there is any particular piece of music that "best describes the
human spirit". How can it? Humanity is much more complex than a bucket of
notes. Certain musical passages have, however, gotten pretty well identified
with certain human moods - at least in Western music.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 7 of 18:
|
May 11 06:11 UTC 2005 |
re #6: I also prefer Beethoven's 6th (aka "Pastoral") symphony to the 9th.
But I don't think there's a short section of it that's quite as choice
as excerpt as the bit of the 9th that I'd choose.
|
twenex
|
|
response 8 of 18:
|
May 11 09:14 UTC 2005 |
Jeffrey's credo: dump on Rane?
Who dumped on whom first, bigshot?
|
rcurl
|
|
response 9 of 18:
|
May 11 15:56 UTC 2005 |
Jeffrey has been doing all the "dumping". I've only been asking questions
and challenging certain assumptions. Scuh as, where's your evidence, pal?
|
mcnally
|
|
response 10 of 18:
|
May 11 16:15 UTC 2005 |
See, this is a perfect example of why I'd go for something other than
"best describes the human spirit.."
|
rcurl
|
|
response 11 of 18:
|
May 11 17:29 UTC 2005 |
OK. Let's get serious. I nominate "Beer Barrel Polka".
|
happyboy
|
|
response 12 of 18:
|
May 11 19:08 UTC 2005 |
oh totally!
in fact that song should be the new national anthem.
|
steve
|
|
response 13 of 18:
|
May 11 19:37 UTC 2005 |
Sorry I wasn't a little more specific. Use "intelligent, thinking non-human
entities" as the intended subjects of my query.
|
rcurl
|
|
response 14 of 18:
|
May 12 01:39 UTC 2005 |
Like, whales?
|
remmers
|
|
response 15 of 18:
|
May 20 14:15 UTC 2005 |
Maybe STeve has extraterrestrial aliens in mind. Has SETI finally
struck pay dirt?
|
rcurl
|
|
response 16 of 18:
|
May 20 19:36 UTC 2005 |
Nope.
|
krj
|
|
response 17 of 18:
|
May 25 21:13 UTC 2005 |
Wouldn't the music that best describes the human spirit be something
which describes the Chinese or Indian spirit?
|
charcat
|
|
response 18 of 18:
|
Jun 25 04:47 UTC 2005 |
the C-scale, it has most of the songs in the world in it, just need
arranging.
|