Music is a strange and unique phenomenon, a powerful experience that works on many levels and while it's all just soundwaves transfered through the eardrums into our brain, the interesting stuff happens after that. Besides affecting emotions, one of its most exciting traits is the ability to invoke visual responses : either static pictures, or dynamic "movie scenes". I'm not talking about soundtrack music exclusively - even music like Opeth can be incredibly visual. I'm wondering, what is the link between music and the resulting visuals ? This is totally subjective territory, it probably depends on the listener's imagination and personality as much as on the musical material.
Which music has the best potential of being visual ? How does it depend on its complexity ? Complicated/contrapuntal music mostly does not fit - the mind is always focused and even when you try to build something from such music, it's more often a story than a sequence of scenes. Let's look elsewhere. Can primitive music be visual ? Unlikely in most cases. Primitive music (and I mean quality primitive music - shitty music is out of this discussion) focuses and enhances the state of mind. If it's aggressive, it develops and soaks in the listener's aggression, becoming something like anti-meditation, leaving the listener exhausted in the end, if you choose to follow the music completely. If it's relaxed, then it becomes complementary to the mind and becomes a form of meditation. But affected is only the state of mind, no intense images here. The search goes on.
Texture. One of the most important things. Monolithic sonic textures are not very effective - you won't see images throughout the whole course of a Beethoven piano sonata, for example; this is not to diminish their value, such music works on another level, and it's not the one where the images appear. Why do textures work like this ? Part of it comes from the cultural background of the listener. A primitive and bad example : the usage of flutes/violins by black/doom metal bands. Whenever a flute sample appears in a penguin album, and plays a cheesy melody, the reviewers write : folk-black metal ! And the violins, even in My Dying Bride ? Of course, the conclusion is "classically influenced" ! Bullshit, of course. But the fact is, the bands use the sound, no matter what melody it colors, to evoke a cliche association. "Cellos are instruments of sorrow." For me, such devices, unless used properly, fail to evoke associations and imagery. But it can be worse : what does every cheese-metal band use to build an "atmosphere" ? Of course, samples of raging medieval battles, howling wolves and those annoying crows. Sure, if there's a sound of a crow there, you won't see a cow instead, unless the recording quality is "true". But a good band can make you see that fucking crow, using music and lyrics, and then the little crow will be a lot more intimidating, for it will croak only in your head, as an element of a scene that appears before you !
But going back to the textures - used accordingly, they are a crucial element. I'm going to bring up Blackwater Park here : it's the most textured Opeth album, and at least for me, the most visually inspiring. As a contrast, Still Life is more complex, and equally emotional, but the melodies are so involved that the visual part is arguably less prominent. There is little time for the mood to settle down, still the constant mood-shifts fit the story perfectly.
What does Blackwater Park bring is more repetition, but also more textural diversity and depth. The chordal distorted passages of Drapery and the minimalistic acoustics in the middle of the title track have enough details going on in the background, so the repetition does not become unnatural, and works positively to establish a scene, before going to the next one. The fact that certain reminiscences and similar melodies occur throughout the album gives even more depth when you look at it from this angle. And the misunderstood Dirge for November is instantly redeemed - I do see a logic for the excessive repetition there, it makes the movement painfully slower and gruesome in its inevitablilty. It's like when you suddenly see something seemingly unspectacular slowly approaching you from the distance, and you have an irrational fear, and you find out that you cannot move; it's coming closer, you see it clearly now, but when it reaches you, it moves right through you and beyond; you feel desolate and sense that something's changed, but you can't put your finger on it, and you know that you'll never understand it. I'm not going to describe the images themselves - I'm waiting for more details to arrive, and the ones that are already there, are linked to the other songs in unexpected ways, so I guess my vision of Blackwater Park will be mine only for a long time.
The Opeth example may not be the best one - I could name other music which has this effect for me, and I'm sure you can find better examples.
But so far we have a few definitive elements of visual music :
1. Textural depth, with an equal balance of diversity and similarity.
2. Not primitive, but also not too complex, or convoluted/cluttered musical material.
3. Importance of change at the right time, change of texture and theme.
4. Links and structure, to add logic (or anti-logic) to the images.
5. Connection of textures and melodies with the listener's associative thinking.
6. Possibility of temporarily discarding one of these elements to enhance the effect.
We can find all of these characteristics in soundtrack music, in varied amounts.
I'm sure I missed a lot, so I hope you can add your thoughts, corrections and arguments. Like, what is the role of lyrics ? What can be shown by the lyrics and how must the music complement the lyrical images ? When the words are clear, strong and gripping, at the climactic juncture the music must be as straightforward as possible; it doesn't have to follow the words precisely, otherwise it becomes cartoonish and over-the-top. Sadly, there are not too many great lyricists in metal - most of them are either immature drunkers or dictionary-abusers (see Borknagar - what a shame, with such great music)... Oh well, looks like I'm straying into Rambleland...
Can you describe a piece of music (Opeth or any other) which brings the most profound images before your eyes ? Which music makes you see something and why ?
D Mullholand
Which music has the best potential of being visual ? How does it depend on its complexity ? Complicated/contrapuntal music mostly does not fit - the mind is always focused and even when you try to build something from such music, it's more often a story than a sequence of scenes. Let's look elsewhere. Can primitive music be visual ? Unlikely in most cases. Primitive music (and I mean quality primitive music - shitty music is out of this discussion) focuses and enhances the state of mind. If it's aggressive, it develops and soaks in the listener's aggression, becoming something like anti-meditation, leaving the listener exhausted in the end, if you choose to follow the music completely. If it's relaxed, then it becomes complementary to the mind and becomes a form of meditation. But affected is only the state of mind, no intense images here. The search goes on.
Texture. One of the most important things. Monolithic sonic textures are not very effective - you won't see images throughout the whole course of a Beethoven piano sonata, for example; this is not to diminish their value, such music works on another level, and it's not the one where the images appear. Why do textures work like this ? Part of it comes from the cultural background of the listener. A primitive and bad example : the usage of flutes/violins by black/doom metal bands. Whenever a flute sample appears in a penguin album, and plays a cheesy melody, the reviewers write : folk-black metal ! And the violins, even in My Dying Bride ? Of course, the conclusion is "classically influenced" ! Bullshit, of course. But the fact is, the bands use the sound, no matter what melody it colors, to evoke a cliche association. "Cellos are instruments of sorrow." For me, such devices, unless used properly, fail to evoke associations and imagery. But it can be worse : what does every cheese-metal band use to build an "atmosphere" ? Of course, samples of raging medieval battles, howling wolves and those annoying crows. Sure, if there's a sound of a crow there, you won't see a cow instead, unless the recording quality is "true". But a good band can make you see that fucking crow, using music and lyrics, and then the little crow will be a lot more intimidating, for it will croak only in your head, as an element of a scene that appears before you !
But going back to the textures - used accordingly, they are a crucial element. I'm going to bring up Blackwater Park here : it's the most textured Opeth album, and at least for me, the most visually inspiring. As a contrast, Still Life is more complex, and equally emotional, but the melodies are so involved that the visual part is arguably less prominent. There is little time for the mood to settle down, still the constant mood-shifts fit the story perfectly.
What does Blackwater Park bring is more repetition, but also more textural diversity and depth. The chordal distorted passages of Drapery and the minimalistic acoustics in the middle of the title track have enough details going on in the background, so the repetition does not become unnatural, and works positively to establish a scene, before going to the next one. The fact that certain reminiscences and similar melodies occur throughout the album gives even more depth when you look at it from this angle. And the misunderstood Dirge for November is instantly redeemed - I do see a logic for the excessive repetition there, it makes the movement painfully slower and gruesome in its inevitablilty. It's like when you suddenly see something seemingly unspectacular slowly approaching you from the distance, and you have an irrational fear, and you find out that you cannot move; it's coming closer, you see it clearly now, but when it reaches you, it moves right through you and beyond; you feel desolate and sense that something's changed, but you can't put your finger on it, and you know that you'll never understand it. I'm not going to describe the images themselves - I'm waiting for more details to arrive, and the ones that are already there, are linked to the other songs in unexpected ways, so I guess my vision of Blackwater Park will be mine only for a long time.
The Opeth example may not be the best one - I could name other music which has this effect for me, and I'm sure you can find better examples.
But so far we have a few definitive elements of visual music :
1. Textural depth, with an equal balance of diversity and similarity.
2. Not primitive, but also not too complex, or convoluted/cluttered musical material.
3. Importance of change at the right time, change of texture and theme.
4. Links and structure, to add logic (or anti-logic) to the images.
5. Connection of textures and melodies with the listener's associative thinking.
6. Possibility of temporarily discarding one of these elements to enhance the effect.
We can find all of these characteristics in soundtrack music, in varied amounts.
I'm sure I missed a lot, so I hope you can add your thoughts, corrections and arguments. Like, what is the role of lyrics ? What can be shown by the lyrics and how must the music complement the lyrical images ? When the words are clear, strong and gripping, at the climactic juncture the music must be as straightforward as possible; it doesn't have to follow the words precisely, otherwise it becomes cartoonish and over-the-top. Sadly, there are not too many great lyricists in metal - most of them are either immature drunkers or dictionary-abusers (see Borknagar - what a shame, with such great music)... Oh well, looks like I'm straying into Rambleland...
Can you describe a piece of music (Opeth or any other) which brings the most profound images before your eyes ? Which music makes you see something and why ?
D Mullholand
