Does music really connect us?

Does music really connect us?

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norman lebrecht

December 11, 2019

The graffito below is obviously well intentioned.

But to my eyes it evokes more of the hangman than the social harmony. It calls to mind all the cruelties that prevail wherever music is performed – the bullying, the victimisation, the elitism, the exclusionism.

Your thoughts?

 

Comments

  • Alexander says:

    judging from this site moods ( among the folks who pasture here) the music rather parts people , especially when they start commenting , from the other hand is unites when we put our likes and dislikes etc ( not to tell more ) – in one word the music is a pure cognitive dossonance 😉

  • Ben G. says:

    Hangman? hmmm…..

    Maybe the artist tried to visualize the saying that “Religion separates people, music brings them together”.

    It depends upon how one looks at this drawing.

  • Curtis says:

    Music is a veil of beauty which is fueled by so much that is wrong with the world.

  • mary says:

    It IS supposed to evoke hangmen (or is it hungmen? or hanged men?). It’s being ironic.

  • Mustafa Kandan says:

    One may as well ask whether literature or visual arts connect us. Just like every other art form it will both connect and divide. There is no magic human endeavour that universally connects people.

  • John Borstlap says:

    Where music is understood and performed, it connects people during the time the listening experience is shared, because music does not use language and conscious concepts. Music is not about the what, but about the how, and in that sense people can share many more things than the what.

  • Larry W says:

    “The true beauty of music is that it connects people. It carries a message, and we, the musicians, are the messengers.” -Roy Ayers

  • Karl says:

    The pic is racist. Music is racist. Everything is racist!

  • Jon H says:

    Orchestras can only exist if multiple people support and attend, so as long as people are attending, it is an experience we’re all having together. But whether people like it… we’re all going to be different, because we are all different.

  • Brian says:

    Maybe it was done by a follower of Cage/graphical notation who is saying, “Traditional notation hangs us”?

  • Bruce says:

    Music provides a point of connection for people who crave connection through music. Not for anyone else (although it may occasionally surprise someone who didn’t expect music to affect them that way).

  • Peter says:

    I wonder if the artist could see only the pair of quavers, and not the hangman image. A bit like the black-blue or white-gold dress image a few years ago.

  • AT says:

    I personally don’t care if music connects us or not. It has been a great treasure for me personally. In my piano practice a wonderful form of meditation that both soothes and inspires me. In music listening a source of wondrous joy and excitement. I wish it for everyone. And students of music are my favorite people. The elitism turns me off as does the current ticket prices. And I can’t stand know-it-all artist types. No need to link it to some grand cosmic design for humanity.

  • Peter Solyom says:

    I saw the same as you!

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