There’s nothing worse than going into a store and having your train of thought assaulted by horrid music blasting from tinny speakers in the ceiling. The concept of elevator music, like everything else in this country, has been carried to extremes. Recently I visited our local State Store to pick up some wine. For those unfamiliar, in Pennsylbama the state has a practical monopoly on booze. You know how difficult buying wine can be when you are faced with literally thousands of choices. To have deafening heavy metal blaring while you try to sort this out is beyond even the aforementioned extreme. After shouting my complaint to the manger, I left, booze-less and with ears ringing.
To me, music is something to be listened to actively, to be concentrated upon, to be savored, to be understood. More importantly, in that process, it has to resonate within you.
String theory tells us that the basis of our perceived material world is tiny–not an adequate word–one-dimensional, vibrating stings. The frequency of their vibrations determines which sub-atomic particles they are. Of course, sub-atomic particles beget atoms, which combine into molecules, which become us. So, we are one with those vibrations, even if we don’t realize it. And, then, what is music, if also not vibrations?
That’s why to have music playing in the background, anywhere outside your full concentration, is, well unnatural. You are part of the vibrational reality and you should fully bath in and resonate with the vibrations that fellow humans produce. It’s just completing the karmic circle.
Now, while the vibrating stings that form the basis of everything can do no wrong, as we go up the ladder, things do tend to go awry. By the time trying to resonate with our essence gets to the human level, there can be hits or misses. Thus, there is such a thing as bad music.
When I have my wireless headphones on and, generally after a glass or two of wine, get myself into full listening mode, I often visualize Mozart suddenly appearing in the room. Surely this was a genius who felt the connection with vibrational reality and was able to properly channel it. And I then gauge each tune I listen to, whether it be be-bop, progressive jazz, country, reggae, banging Tibetan gongs or Talking Heads (I have eclectic tastes), as to how Mozart might react.
Admittedly, in combining quantum physics with the great master, I’ve set a very high bar. And, the inspiration for this particular musing, aside from the wine part, was my listening to a piece by David Gilmore called Energies of Change, from his 2015 album of the same name. I’ve probably listened to this dozens and dozens of times, but it never gets old. While incredibly complex, I feel that the smoothness of the transitions and the absolute lack of dissonance synchs it perfectly with the vibrations that underlie my existence. I think my pal, Mozart, would have found this stimulating, too.
On the other hand, that tune promotes more of an intellectual reaction. No hairs stand on end as they do when the Choir of Young Believers delivers the line “Everything goes back to the beginning” in the thematic accompaniment to the Nordic noir TV masterpiece, “The Bridge.” I think if M could had seen the YouTube video of that piece, “Hollow Talk,” as performed by an all-girl choir in the Strasbourg Cathedral, his follicles, too, might also have been dancing.
So, Dave, what is it? Is resonance with the vibrations of music a mental thing or is it emotional? Which part of your physical body is dancing in tune? I certainly don’t know the answer to that question, but I think what we all can feel is that there’s a lot going on beyond our shared illusion of what is real.
©2024 David B Bucher
SoEast 