Music: Can it have a universal understanding?

Neapolitan · 02-24-2011, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

Well thats to be expected. One medium is for entertainment and the other is entirely academic. I'm just saying that the premise of the thread is interesting, but has been explored in depth by others who have come to some remarkably solid conclusions, backed up by research eveidence.

And what proof do you have that the History Channel is for purely entertainment purposes only?

Quote:

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

Your second comment is an undefined factor, but I have a hard time comprehending how on earth we'd even begin to test that.

I was not asking you to begin a test, I was hoping you would rely on people with far more money, time, resources, and experience than any of us have.

I don't totally disagree with you, that someone from an entirely different culture would not (might not) relate to a musical passage (for example) happy or sad, whimsical or serious, etc etc. Because I believe some of those things are conditional. Say that every time you watched a movie as a kid when you heard motif that used tubas and kettle drums you would see an elephant walk by, fast-forward as adult you heard the same motif and was asked what does that sound like you mostly likely respond "an elephant." But if you played the same motif to someone else in another country who didn't have the chance to watch movies you've seen, you would probably not get the same answer, maybe he had a similar experience with a different movie and employed a similar motif.