Music and the Mind

MUSIC AND THE MIND

PAPER 1 – The Musical Experience

Music has been an essential part of my life as far as I can remember. Coming from a family that doesn’t like to discuss its problems I have often had to turn to music as therapy; “Where words fail, music speaks,” as so consummately said by Hans Christian Anderson. The song I have most often turned to is ‘Raise Your Weapon’ by an artist named Joel Thomas Zimmerman (or Deadmau5). He is a Canadian Electronica artist; a former alcoholic, his music resonates his pain and his recovery and it speaks to me. Accompanying him is Greta Svabo Bech, a Faroese singer-songwriter whose emotive voice calls to the listener like the Sirens did to Odysseus.

This song, like most other songs of its genre, is produced mainly using synthesizers. This instrument is a result of the amalgamation of technology and music, which is why it appeals to me. A synthesizer is a keyboard-like console, which can be manipulated to achieve almost any desired sound. It involves the use of waveforms and changing frequencies. Just the thought of it excites me as any sound we want to attain, in this world, can be made with this little box if we just know which knob to turn and which button to press. Zimmerman expertly showcases the range of sounds achievable through synthesizers in ‘Raise Your Weapon’.

The song starts with a peaceful piano progression backed by a matching sine wave synth track. It is strikingly peaceful. Soon Bech serenades us; with her beautifully painful voice she tells us of how she has been wronged and how badly she wants her broken relationship to be fixed. In the first line, “Rippin' my heart was so easy, so easy,” the authenticity in her voice is ever-present. Soon another synth, with its high frequencies cut off, is added to the mix in double time to give the song a driving sense of rhythm. Then we hear the drums: the bass-drum kick marches on and commands the song forward at a steady pace as the rest of the song is side...