Composers of music for art may perhaps be properly advised to have an understanding of a thing of the distinction involving media and content material in art. This understanding can lead to an expansion of inventive possibilities and to higher effect in the final audiovisual presentation.
In 1964 an MIT Professor by the name of Marshal McLuhan published Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. The initially chapter of that book is titled "The Medium is the Message." McLuhan defines a medium as an extension of the human getting. A medium is that which serves to reach the human intention. The medium is the container that delivers the goods. The goods themselves are the content material of the medium. If world wide web is the medium, then the net site is a type of media content material. The internet site in turn can be understood as a medium whose content material may perhaps be articles, pictures or embedded audio.
McLuhan challenges us to appear at media separately, apart from content material, and to have an understanding of that each and every medium has individual and social consequences. Contemplate the revolutionary influence of the transcontinental rail freight program. Towns that grew up along the tracks evolved and interconnected in techniques that towns remote from the rail program did not. That expertise of evolution and interconnection was not associated to the certain freight or passengers that could constitute the content material of the rail method medium. Rather, the social effect of extended rail systems was the continuous two-way transmission of information and facts that was afforded by the routine and frequent stops of the train.
Take into account the raw components of visual artwork. The regular canvas is a medium. It is a container. It is the suggests by which a further medium, paint, is held in spot to permit the formation of an image, be it abstract or realistic. Steel might be the medium. A vinyl record may perhaps be the medium. Each of those media have or had social consequences. Along with these consequences are connected emotions and feelings. Steel led to skyscrapers which in turn led to a very distinctive workplace knowledge for millions of workers. Sound recording on vinyl made portability and intimacy in the expertise of listening to music. On an emotional level, we brought the artist into our residences along with the record album.
In the similar way that music can speak to emotion, feeling and sentiment described in the content material of visual art, so can it resonate with the medium itself. For instance, a sculpture roughed out of a tree stump creates an association with nature even if the topic of the sculpture is a soda bottle. Building nature references in the music may perhaps serve to emphasize an inherent tension among organic and inorganic in the sculpture. In other situations, the music could introduce a sense of irony. Contemplate the emotional associations to vinyl recordings discussed earlier. How do we feel about that retired vinyl becoming employed as the canvas for a painting? There might be a sense of loss. There may well be a sense even of guilt, of possessing desecrated one thing sacred. Picture music that brings out some of those emotions although seeking at content material that is lighthearted or whimsical! The music has pushed us into thinking about a disturbing irony and our knowledge of the artwork is richer as a outcome.
By thinking of art media apart from art content material, the composer of music for art may perhaps learn emotional or other components that can be expressed musically. Emphasizing those components may possibly create tensions which deepen the knowledge of the artwork.
Dan Goldstein is a composer of music for art. He markets modern art with original audio at Audio Sparks for Art. Have a appear and a listen! Black Guitar by Holly Jackson.
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