I’ve been thinking deeply about sharing my thoughts and opinions through music lately. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m really leaning into my belief that my music should be a reflection of the world around me and an expression of my humanity. As a result, my recent compositions – like A Sensible Solution – have spoken volumes about my perspective on life and told clear stories about my experiences.
At least they sounded like that to me . . . I’m not sure if anyone else made that connection.
If everything seemed so clear to me than why am I uncertain about the connection with the world? Well, that’s what happens with instrumental music.
There’s a fundamental difference between instrumental and vocal music that makes a huge impact upon connecting listeners with meaning – lyrics! When Bob Dylan sang “Blowin’ In The Wind,” he spoke directly to a generation of young people that got behind his message right away. This connection was immediate because he told them exactly what he was thinking through lyrics. Words describe meaning with a precision that just can’t be found with instrumental music.
Not to say that instrumental music can’t be filled with meaning – it can take us on a journey in a beautifully powerful way. A wide range of tones, a variance in texture, a constantly changing dynamic level, a fluid melodic shape, or a rhythmic intensity can all make powerful connections with a listener. Working in unison, these musical elements can all tell a story that words just can’t express. A composer can use instrumental music to evoke emotions in listeners, often using musical tools to inspire the same set of emotions for most people. There’s a beauty in the way that instrumental composers and performers provide meaning for listeners, and in many ways, it’s just as powerful as vocal music.
But there’s an important piece of instrumental music that weighs heavily upon the ability to share a specific message with a listener – individual interpretation. Since we’re not using words to tell a listener exactly what we’re trying to express with the music, they have to figure it out for themselves. This is a big ask for a composer or performer to make of a listener. Everyone has different life experiences, diverse exposures to music, and their own perspectives on the world; this all has an impact on their translation of the music. It might even be more vague; a listener might feel something from the music – often times even something powerful – and they just can’t express what that feeling means. And then there’s the situation where a listener might just not want to put in the effort to figure our our intention; the connection ends when the sound stops. There’s no guarantee that a listener will know exactly what you are trying to say with a piece of instrumental music.
One way to express meaning with more precision through instrumental music is to pair it with another medium. You can record spoken word over instrumental music, pairing the different beats of the written word with the ebs and flows of the music. Walt Disney famously matched a variety of instrumental pieces from classical composers with animated storylines in Fantasia. Soundtrack composers such as John Williams have permanently connected our consciousness with characters and images through their work with film. Choregraphers have long connected movement with instrumental music, letting the beauty of the human body tell stories on stage. Classical concerts are often accompanied by a program with information about the music and the composer’s intention. For A Sensible Solution, I overlaid text on a performance video to definitively attach meaning to the music. It’s amazing what can happen when artists apply their creativity to the issue of meaning and instrumental music; the results can be endlessly rewarding.
There’s danger in taking away the gift of interpretation from the listener though. The freedom to make a choice about the music is empowering and many listeners thrive on that experience. A lack of specifity around musical meaning can set the imagination on fire, encouraging our inner voices to explore new world inspired by the sounds. In fact, they may discover things that we didn’t even know were there. Listeners might hear meaning embedded in the music that we as composers don’t even realize is there. And yes, they may completely miss our message; but if they find something else meaningful in the sound, maybe our job is done. As much as we may feel a need to share our intentions with a listener, we need to embrace the format and let listeners have their own experiences.
So where does that leave us?
At the end of the day, I’m a bassist and I write instrumental music. That means that I have to appreciate the musical context and let it exist in an authentic way. With that in mind, I can live with the idea of listener interpretation. If I write a song like A Sensible Solution where I’m trying to express something concrete, I may have to take another step beyond the composing and performing process. I’m happy to find creative ways to connect meaning to the music though; it’s yet another part of the process that is fun and inspiring. This is the way that I express myself to the world, so I’m always excited to find the best way to do it.