scary micromusic

An interesting thing happened today...I was playing, on my stereo,
some music by a rather well known microtonalist. My daughter was also
listening, and asked who it was. I told her, and asked what she thought
of it (I already knew, though). She said she didn't like it, that it
reminded her of two very frightening people who used to be in her life,
and that it sounded like music that they used to play. She asked if I
would turn it off, and I did...fact is, this music DID sound weird and
scary, and I can understand why it would frighten a little kid. And, this
is a little kid who has, indeed, heard a lot of music, and much of it
pretty out there.
What is the point? Well, I guess it has something to do with the
message one is putting across in their art. This music sounded creepy to
me as well, and I cannot imagine ever playing it for anyone in the world,
at any time. I see absolutely no value in this music, no matter what
tuning system it is in...the sad thing, of course, is where is the person
coming from that wrote/performed it? I truly believe that this person is
reflecting their inner state, and that is too bad, indeed. By the way,
this is the 2nd time this scenario has occured lately...in the other
incident, I was at a friend's house, who is an avant garde sort of (12
tone) keyboard player. I was playing yet another prominant
microtonalist's music, and was asked to take it off of the stereo because
this fellow couldn't take it...it made him feel very depressed. Again, I
had to agree...it was not music that I would play for anyone else.
It's tricky...I certainly think music should express the full range
of human experience. On the other hand, music that reminds a little kid
of certain perverts (they are that) is not, to my way of thinking, a good
thing. Again, it makes me sad for the artist in question as well. I have
long felt that much micromusic focuses on too narrow a band of feelings,
sort of a cerebral, weird melange of bleeps, bloops, and noodling. I
still do. There is a sort of (hate to say it) unhuman, removed, detached
kind of music that I feel is totally invalid as meaningful art...this is
the stuff that my kid was responding to today (and, a piece that gives me
much the same feeling is Schoenberg's Violin Concerto...it's like being
in a padded cell with white walls and a lot of Prozac)...of course, as
they say, opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one...Hstick

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>The ear is specialised tissue that evolved from touch.
>There is no reason to assume that we hear only with our ears.
>I think our brains are acutely sensitive to a myriad range
>of electromagnetic fields; some of us are aware of it,
>most are not.

These are both probably true statements, but it's important to
understand that these are by no means well-understood concerns.
Speculation about such things has produced far more sensationalism than
useful insight.

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