How music matters, Tom Attah - Jemina

Today we had Tom Attah talking to us how music has meaning and how to interpret it. We did some listening exercises that helped us identify how the music gives out different feelings and works as an icon for things.

Music is a sign system that conveys meaning that is defined by culture and society. In a way music is it's own language. The meanings can be really different in different countries but some sounds are universal. Usually sounds that rely on our evolutionary instincts are universal, for example a baby's cry has the same effect everywhere.

We listened to two different songs that were an inspiration behind the iconic Imperial March from Star Wars. It was interesting to see how it mixes an epic war song and a funeral march to make the feeling of Darth Vader approaching. The song is really iconic and you only need to hear the few notes from the beginning to know who the music is about.

This video is a bit long but interesting. They experiment with the way music effects a scene and how the same scenes have a totally different meaning with a heroic music or a comical one. Also when we hear music that we interpret as happy, the part of our brain that is involved in feeling happy fires up. Same with different emotions which helps the viewer to commit to the atmosphere of the scene.