Re: Hackles have been raised!

[buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)]

>As a music listener, the methods used to create a piece of music only 
>matter
>to me as intellectual curiosities.   What truly matters emotionally is 
>the impact of the end result, regardless of how it came to be.

This still implies that the only purpose of music
is to produce an emotional response.  Personally,
I think music is whatever people want it to be,
and it's no better or worse for music to be
"emotional" or "emotionless".

On the other hand, IMHO, I take all claims of
"emotionality" with a grain of salt because I think for
the most part people are speaking of something that isn't
really emotional at all; it's just more like emotion than
intellect and so that's the term people use.  It seems
to me the range of expressive music is so much broader
than the scope of emotions.  (Of course you _can_
evoke particular emotions, but that seems to be
only a subset of the potential, and debatable
whether it is the "best" subset.)

I half wonder whether it's just that certain kinds
of music evokes an adrenalin rush which people
mistake for emotional response (a la classic
psych research).

Sean Barrett