Memory and Experience in Music

Memory and Experience in Music

What would the human being be without memory? Without that little library that keeps every single detail of your life, and that in the end, makes the man and individual? All those thoughts that wonder around your mind like a ghost, tormenting our brain with decisions we took or remembering past victories. Memory is the skeleton of our body, the earth which we walk on, the eyes of our soul. How many times has memory changed the view on something, just because of past experiences that now flourish with bias ideas? As it is the basis of our existence, can memory be something else, something more than just a tool, how could it be related to art? When we link it to art, as in any type of art, from painters to composers, we would start thinking that memory is used for learning and remembering various techniques, comparing and contrasting them and seeking for new ideas that were originated by these. And as more experience one has, or more memories of the techniques, the more will the artist master them.

Though this is only a mere grasp of what we basically consider memory. Memory stands as the most quintessential logic of the mind, and its complexity leads us to see it contains several layers; for example from forgetting about a small detail or remembering thousands of pages. A selective memory can only be reduced to the individual, to his experiences and situations. Thus these features of memory cannot be generally portrayed nor classified, as it is impossible to analyse why we remember certain things that cannot be related to our psychology. How interesting it becomes then, when memory is just a puppet of fate, and has no owner but itself, stopping at the different ports of our mind whenever the wind decides to push it. It is true that we control most of it, but sometimes we forget the most important, and remember the most unnecessary detail.

Musicians are said to have a great memory, as they are not only required to learn huge pieces of music, also to remember the various details that make music great. Leonardo Da Vinci said that painting is the most supreme art, as it does not fade like music, and its image stays physically forever in the memory of humanity. But painting is an immediate pleasure, meaning that the image in front of us stands naked, blowing our senses with only one look. Suddenly the truth stares at us at great speed, and the feeling we get from this image is sudden and concrete. And after leaving the museum this feeling is the only memory we can think of, we do not remember the exact position of the characters, as we do not remember the exact notes of a symphony; is this feeling, a mixture of all the situations and sensations at that precise moment, which stirs our emotions. I thus dare to say that music is the most supreme art, as it is the most abstract and powerful. The mind unconsciously retains those secret chords that reveal images from distant places, unknown senses awake with its magic. What painting do we need when we can see heaven through its constant movement? It is this movement that makes ideas stick and flourish; a symphony leaves us with an image, a living sentiment affecting us for even days, incubating in your soul and growing inside us.

A great example to use here is Beethoven; I personally did a small experiment to test my memory with his music. His Pastoral Symphony, number six, full of popular tunes, conveys not only a story but also sensations and very strong images. I therefore told myself only to listen to this symphony in spring, when the full climax of his music is beautifully mixed with the environment, creating a double effect in the mind. And it was curious to discover, after a few years doing this test, how the memory reacts to this particular music. Now, whenever I listen to it, the image of a green field covered by the golden rays of the sun jumps sweetly into my mind. It does not matter if the cold wind shatters my bones; I feel warm and protected again.

Though, it is important to make some divisions. Beethoven’s music was considered as absolute or pure music, basically meaning that the music conveys an image, not the image being used as an inspiration for the music. The latter created programmatic music, where for example a painting, inspires a piece of music. Every attempt to unite all the arts together under one flag seems inexact as every work should stand alone in its own field, it would be wrong to say all arts are the same. An example could be “Pictures at an exhibition” by Mussorgsky where the music resembles someone walking down the gallery, with the music advancing at the same time. It is though fascinating to see what we can do so that our listener remembers either the music, or the paintings. But this would be to limit ourselves, to limit the listener to only one thought, when music is there to free our souls, to let individuals paint in their mind different rivers or fields. I find interesting Kant’s view about the experience with concepts in our imagination. He thought that imagination could be freed from concepts (from the rules of the understanding), and this is when the aesthetic judgment of the spectator falls into place. When he sees a picture or listens to a piece of music his imagination sees a set of patterns, which have no determinate concept; only then, he is able to bring this perception under the idea of unity. The experience of unity creates pleasure, he perceives organisation in his experience as objective, and elevates his mind to higher pleasures that cannot be related to any type of concept. Goethe already talked about the idea of unity, or form; something extremely essential when it comes to music or poetry. Structure allows patterns to be easily recognised by the memory. Though as well, the themes of a poem or a concerto are related to the form, creating not only an order but an idea. With these two combinations of form and thus themes, a natural sense of harmony arouses in each one of us, experiencing a harmonious working of our rational faculties.

Nietzsche abhorred opera because it limits our imagination, and the words, lights and imagery stand all on stage, without the need for us to concentrate and explore the fascinating mountains of our mind. “No good opera plot can be sensible... people do not sing when they are feeling sensible”, W.H. Auden. I myself have experienced playing music when woes afflict my spirit, and how my inner voice seemed muted by the external world. Though, who dislikes opera? Although the music from operas are made to tell a story, I strongly recommend to get the most beautiful pieces of opera that you do not know, and listen to them before you actually read the story or go to see the opera itself. Then compare your thoughts with the actual story. Suddenly everything seems to change, the colours, forms and shapes you imagined and remembered fall into place, into a concrete line, where everything begins to make sense. And somehow you feel disappointed as you might have imagined something inspiring and full of grandeur when you discover that the composer actually wanted to make his audience feel mournful and pensive. But the first experience one has of that piece is what makes music so powerful and indescribable, so abstract there are millions of interpretations, none of them wrong; the individual raises music to his own level, experiencing his thoughts through the harmony.  

Schopenhauer went abstract with his musical theories. He strongly claimed that music was not there to express joy or grief; these feelings are there themselves, in their essential and authentic nature. Chopin himself was unable to put thematic titles to many of his pieces, unlike Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony or his Eroica. He said he could not combine all his feelings under a title of just a few words; the immensity of his emotions covered a vast horizon. That is why Chopin’s music is considered so pure; he seemed to compose in an ethereal world where the chains of the conceptual reality could not reach his sublime and genuine spirit. And if we relate it to Kant we come to see that our past experiences of joy or grief are the ones that make feelings rise in their most perfect purity, allowing music and then our mind to seduce us into lost paths of emotion...

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination
and life to everything”, Plato.