By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
azemedia-new-logo
  • Donation
  • Who we are
  • Home
  • Opinion
  • News
    • Economy
    • Energy
    • Ecology
  • Culture
  • Diaspora
  • Interview
  • Science
  • Logistics-Transport
  • Gender
  • History
  • Defense
  • Karabakh
Aze.Media
Aa
Search
  • News
  • Economy
  • Ecology
  • Energy
  • Opinion
  • Culture
  • Gender
  • Interview
  • Science
  • Logistics-Transport
  • History
  • Defense
  • Karabakh
  • Diaspora
  • Who we are
Follow US
© 2021 Aze.Media – Daily Digest
Aze.Media > Culture > Synthetic food for the soul
Culture

Synthetic food for the soul

Banality is tiring. Especially when you are young, you often get tired of hearing the same idea, naturally reacting to it with either contempt or irony. This is understandable: frequent repetition of an idea cheapens it to some extent, making it trite and commonplace, and, like all ordinary things we are accustomed to, it eventually stops attracting our attention.

Firudin Allahverdi
By Firudin Allahverdi Published September 9, 2021 12 Min Read
bashliq-ola-biler-e1589949972855

But in many cases, such ideas are not lies, but truth, and this is how the notion of “banal truth” appeared. The mechanism of banalization of truth is apparently also very simple and banal: an idea sinks into people’s minds precisely because it is true. Those inoculated spread it further, the number of those who know and speak that truth grows, and it thus becomes banal.

One of these banal truths is that music is food for the soul. To be honest, I don’t know who said it first. Perhaps the real author lived in ancient times; it is possible that he came to this conclusion, among other things, by drawing parallels between spirit and body. At any rate, the idea is true: most of the judgments we make about food can be applied to music.

The most important of these judgments has to do with healthy diet. We all care about that the food that keeps our body in working order is healthy, promoting organic food, trying to avoid artificial nutrition. Unfortunately, knowing little about music, we do not take as good care of our soul. We often indulge our soul in music that is not organic but synthetic, actually harming it.

However. it is easier to distinguish between organic and synthetic music than between organic and artificial food. The most natural and organic generators of musical sounds are acoustic musical instruments—almost every instrument known to us, except synthesizers. What all these instruments have in common is that sound is extracted from them mostly by people; that is, in order to produce musical sounds, someone either touches the strings or keys with fingers, or blows into the tube if it is a wind instrument, or strikes a percussion with hands or sticks.

Sounds produced in this way are as unique as the various sounds of nature. Both people and acoustics, as well as the electrical and technical factor, which has been constantly evolving in the past century, play a role here.

Musical ensembles playing acoustic instruments

The human factor itself stems from physical and emotional parameters. Physical parameters include the build of the musician’s fingers, the strength of the wrists, the lung capacity, and so on. Since these indicators are never 100% identical for any two people, musical sounds are also produced very differently. Moreover, a person can never repeat their own performance of the same musical piece with a 100% accuracy. The difference is not made up by the banal sequence of notes—it is in the distances between the notes as they are played and in the volume of each individual note. That is, the next time a musician plays the same piece again, there is a seconds or milliseconds difference between the sounds of the notes, as well as in their volume, and often the difference of the musical piece as a whole can be measured in seconds or even minutes proportional to the quantity of notes. The difference in the duration also has to do with the musician’s emotional state, with their mood during the performance. Even if we approach the issue microscopically, we may see microscopic emotional differences when the same musician performs the same piece for a second time immediately after the first time. Clearly, the more time passes between two performances, the greater the emotional difference in the sound.

Acoustic, electric and technical factors depend on the venue where the music is played, the location of the source of sound, and the distance between the microphone and the source of sound. The same music sounds different in a room, in a concert hall and in the open air. A few centimeters difference in the distance between the microphone and the performer also affects the resulting sound.

Synthetic sounds, which I compared to artificial food, are produced by mechanical oscillators that generate sound waves by manipulating electric current and their virtual analogues—various software. After the oscillators generate sound waves, mechanical or virtual synthesizers can perform various manipulations with those sound waves to make them different, and by synthesizing those waves together (hence the name synthesizer), they turn these sounds into a “musical instrument”. Thus, most of the above factors, including the human one which we called the most important, play virtually no part in the process of creating synthetic music: these sounds are devoid of both human touch and human breath.

A classic synthesizer

Just as chemical additives present in some foodstuffs these days are impossible to avoid and practically harmless, synthetic sounds sometimes used in music are not considered to be artistically or emotionally harmful. These sounds are often used either to support the background harmony or bass function that do not carry the main musical idea (often in film scores and some popular music genres), or with a certain degree of conventionality in genres such as jazz, where the impromptu creation of musical ideas is essential. But if in the first case the carriers of the main musical idea almost necessarily are acoustic instruments, in the second case the remaining instruments are mainly acoustic. For example, in jazz, percussion or wind instruments, as well as double bass, or bass guitar; meanwhile, most of the factors inherent in acoustic instruments also play a role in the sound production in electric guitars, electric bass, electric violin and other similar instruments, so they are also referred to as acoustic instruments.

Although it may seem a bit cynical, I must say that acoustic music is “expensive”. Quality acoustic music comes at the cost of the performer’s years of training, lifelong practice to keep in shape, sleepless nights, and a restless, occasionally stressful life. The audience’s investment does not stop at buying a ticket—to fully enjoy acoustic music, you have to be aware of the different levels of complexity intrinsic in its genres, the nuances of sound of instruments, and what they do in general. But it is not too difficult: often, all it takes is focused listening and an open mind. Rest assured that the music will return the investment with interest.

In some genres of music, especially in music combined under the common name of EDM (Electronic Dance Music) in recent years (formerly known as Techno), almost everything we hear is created with synthetic sounds. It is true that such musical compositions sometimes, very rarely, use bits—samples—of previously recorded pieces of acoustic music, but in the general context, their role is practically insignificant. That is, when we listen to this kind of music as a whole, the neurons in our brains receive synthetic music waves en masse.

If we imagine how the synthetic food we put into our body changes and shapes it, we can assume that the music we let into our soul has a similar effect on our state of mind. The decisions our soul makes depend on the music we listen to as much as the future functioning of our body depends on what we eat. Considering that one of the marks of EDM, including Techno, Trance, Trap, Hip-hop and other genres, made up of synthetic sounds throughout, is the constant repetition of music patterns, it becomes clear to all of us how this kind music can affect our soul.

Aze.Media

You Might Also Like

The 13th edition of Azerbaijan’s Gabala International Music Festival

Ukrainian-language audio guide launched at Azerbaijan National Museum of Art

In memory of the People’s Artist of Azerbaijan, Shahmar Alekberov

Opening ceremony of the 13th Gabala International Music Festival held

Gara Garayev’s 105th birthday was celebrated with a grand concert in New York

Firudin Allahverdi September 9, 2021

New articles

gruz-rossiya-karabah1
“Humanitarian aid” or discrimination?
Opinion October 1, 2023
UN Mission in Karabakh
News October 1, 2023
Azeri-military-in-nagorno-karabakh-scaled-1
Azerbaijan Army’s serviceman becomes Martyr as a result of sniper fire from territory of Armenia
News September 30, 2023
maxresdefault
Eldar Namazov: How is it possible for 1500 people to pass through the Border Checkpoint in an hour?
Interview September 30, 2023
Arz Ira Branded
Can Israelis help achieve Azerbaijani-Armenian peace?
Opinion September 30, 2023
1_pSMkIZSfuCUgHmPIST5xCg
Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict: Beyond common belief
Opinion September 30, 2023
d9342164-1f07-33c3-ba19-16a0c82f9f16_850
MFA: Further requests submitted by Armenia to ICJ are completely unfounded and absurd
News September 30, 2023
OON-1
UNHCR: No information on ill-treatment of Armenians leaving Karabakh
News September 30, 2023
Azerbaijan-Armenia-_-Svet-foto-750-500
Russia’s loss and Azerbaijan’s victory is in the West’s interest
Opinion September 29, 2023
169597291399739617_1200x630
The 2nd Azerbaijan National Urban Forum was held in Zangilan President Ilham Aliyev addressed opening ceremony
Karabakh September 29, 2023

You Might Also Like

qebel5

The 13th edition of Azerbaijan’s Gabala International Music Festival

August 29, 2023 4 Min Read
photo_2023-08-27 10.23.09

Ukrainian-language audio guide launched at Azerbaijan National Museum of Art

August 27, 2023 2 Min Read
shahmar_elekberov_(3)

In memory of the People’s Artist of Azerbaijan, Shahmar Alekberov

August 23, 2023 2 Min Read
16904920076319938554_1000x669

Opening ceremony of the 13th Gabala International Music Festival held

July 28, 2023 4 Min Read
karnegi hall (2)

Gara Garayev’s 105th birthday was celebrated with a grand concert in New York

June 27, 2023 2 Min Read
Reading Festival - Day 1

Tankian’s painfully familiar genome

June 13, 2023 8 Min Read
1685639067150230709_1000x669

YARAT Contemporary Art Space presents “Guilty Pleasure” group exhibition

June 2, 2023 3 Min Read
9a707848-4ccc-3407-894f-7fd5a15cc020_850

Kharybulbul International Music Festival kicks off in Shusha

May 9, 2023 1 Min Read

Useful links

c24a7d34-02d2-45a2-95ad-980aa8264ad5-pojkz9yv6xhhbce432wwxbxmnoy6uz3duxvaa480e8
426082d1-a9e4-4ac5-95d4-4e84024eb314-pojkz91103g6zqfh8kiacu662b2tn9znit7ssu9ekg
ab65ed96-2f4a-4220-91ac-f70a6daaf659-pojkz67iflcc0wjkp1aencvsa5gq06ogif9cd0dl34
96e40a2b-5fed-4332-83c6-60e4a89fd4d0-pojkz836t9ewo4gue23nscepgx7gfkvx6okbbkasqo
759bde00-a375-4fa1-bedc-f8e9580ceeca-pq8mvb9kwubqf6bcadpkq5mz16nayr162k3j2084cg
aze-media-logo-ag1

Aze.Media offers an independent and strategic insight on socio-cultural, political and economic life in Azerbaijan.

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Cookies Policy

Email: editor@aze.media

© 2023 Aze.Media – Daily Digest

Removed from reading list

Undo
aze-media-logo1 aze-media-logo-ag1
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?