Music with depth

What I always tell my students is this....when you play music, make me (meaning people) feel something meaningful. Make me weep, laugh, make me feel something of great depth if possible. Of course, we're all wired differently, and the meaning of art is usually pretty subjective. But, there is music with depth, and there is music that has little depth...my opinion on a lot of "modern" music, including much of the non 12 tone eq music I've heard over the years, is that it doesn't reach those deep levels of spiritual meaning that I am wanting to hear. I am not here to name names, cause I'm not attacking anybody personally, but when we say we don't like someone's art, I'm not surprised if feelings get involved; but, I've never assumed everybody was going to like what I do either, so it's the way the criticism is delivered that's important. When I hear something I don't like, I say "I don't live there," meaning that particular music doesn't appeal to me. We don't have to insult someone personally if their music doesn't move us.

And speaking of deep spiritual meaning, I have rarely seen anybody on the tuning forums discuss music in these terms. It's mostly about decimal places and subtle shades of commas...no problem, but the true meaning of music is in it's great power to express astonishing levels of feeling. That's what I am looking for in my art, and I believe that the use of different tunings can help in that process. That's why I like Danielou's book "Music and the Power of Sound" so much; regardless if he gets the numbers right all the time, he gives great insight into the deeper meanings of music. That has been almost totally lost in our "modern" American culture, and that's too bad. And I agree about Bach; he continually touches me on the deepest human and spiritual levels, he is my ideal as a musician...best...Hstick

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