"May 13th: One Thing I Wish I was Smart Enough
to Understand
No one understands everything, but everyone wants to
understand something. Spend a little time discussing one of those fascinating
subjects which you just don’t get. Why does it interest you? What don’t you
understand?"
Topics from, A Bookful
Blockhead.
If you’re reading this, you probably have some free time on your hands. So if you also happen to be on a device with speakers and a mouse/trackpad, I invite you to try out “balldroppings”. It’s a very simple webapp that allows you to make music by controlling interactions between balls, self-drawn lines, and adjustable gravity. [In regards to the 'net, the application was impressively built with javascript (i.e. no plugins needed), so if it doesn’t load properly, please upgrade to a modern browser. /PSA]
I'm not much of a language person. I try my best with the English language, my Taiwanese is barely conversational, and my Mandarin skills compete for a distant third with my non-existent French. It’s not something I’m proud of, and while language fascinates me on a daily basis, I haven’t honestly invested much time and effort into speaking new tongues.
But instead of picking up some new Italian words, I'm writing this essay and asking myself, "what is it about 'language' that fascinates me?" A language is a 'system of communication' - and independently, civilizations around the world have developed unique ways of writing and speaking to one another, to communicate emotion, law, history, and thought. It's the glue of a family or community that allows individuals to interact, and it can all be conveyed using slight variations of pitch and sounds controlled by our mouths and vocal chords, or alternatively, through some arrangement of lines and marks that look absurdly foreign to any outsider. Language reminds me of the first time I saw a 2 GB microSD card. There is so much information that can be conveyed in just a handful of words.
But even more amazing are the other types of “languages". Body language and facial expressions convey a significant amount of information on one’s emotions. (Now we're looking at those 32 GB microSDHC chips). Going on a tangent, mathematics is often labelled as a “universal language”, since its basic concepts is expressed in every language or culture. Math is something that can be communicated to anyone, even extra-terrestrials. 1679 is a semi-prime number no matter where you are in the universe.
And while math is something I find fascinating and interesting, and much of it is still out of my limits, this essay will go towards a form of communication that seems and sounds quite different, but may ultimately be more of the same: music*. I consider music to be the true international** language – every culture has its own songs and instruments, and these voices can be shared and appreciated without any additional knowledge.
Music can convey a whole lot. Music can invoke: the pentatonic scale of the Orient, the cowbell of Latin America, the plagal cadence of Christian hymns. Music is often at the core of nationalism and at the heart of religion. Music is used to set the tone of an event - whether it's the sound of a string orchestra tuning, the opening chord of Mendelssohn's Wedding March, or the first few notes of Hedwig's theme.
There's a quality of music that allows the simple vibration of air particles hitting our eardrums to convey so much, and I wish I was smart enough to understand these complexities. It's powerful stuff, perhaps more so than NZT. The moment when the crowd sang O Canada at the Gold medal hockey game felt just as unifying and patriotic as Crosby's overtime goal, both times where everyone could stand proud as a Canadian.
There are subtleties to music that are really amazing too - perhaps these are what fascinate me the most. Any trained pianist can play a Bach Invention, but few can capture the same tone that Glenn Gould mastered. Back when I took lessons, my piano teacher would ask me how my week was, based on how I played the first piece of the hour. I never took notice on how I played differently, but she was able to tell whether I had an inspiring or stressful week, just by listening.
I wish I could understand more of how music works. How can pressing a sequence of keys on the piano with precise timing, speed, and pressure produce such beautiful music? It gets even more complicated with other instruments like the viola and the oboe, with even more variations on tone and pitch. It's almost magical.
And personally, I don't believe that understanding the science behind a mystery necessarily makes it less alluring. Studying biochemistry has not lowered my appreciation of the miracle of life. Knowing that my phone can solve sudokus does not make completing them any less fun***. I feel that knowing the math and physics behind music can allow us to enhance what we already know, and create new revolutionary ideas in music. Take the theremin for example:
I'm not much of a language person. I try my best with the English language, my Taiwanese is barely conversational, and my Mandarin skills compete for a distant third with my non-existent French. It’s not something I’m proud of, and while language fascinates me on a daily basis, I haven’t honestly invested much time and effort into speaking new tongues.
But instead of picking up some new Italian words, I'm writing this essay and asking myself, "what is it about 'language' that fascinates me?" A language is a 'system of communication' - and independently, civilizations around the world have developed unique ways of writing and speaking to one another, to communicate emotion, law, history, and thought. It's the glue of a family or community that allows individuals to interact, and it can all be conveyed using slight variations of pitch and sounds controlled by our mouths and vocal chords, or alternatively, through some arrangement of lines and marks that look absurdly foreign to any outsider. Language reminds me of the first time I saw a 2 GB microSD card. There is so much information that can be conveyed in just a handful of words.
 |
| I hope the aliens make more sense out of this than I do. |
But even more amazing are the other types of “languages". Body language and facial expressions convey a significant amount of information on one’s emotions. (Now we're looking at those 32 GB microSDHC chips). Going on a tangent, mathematics is often labelled as a “universal language”, since its basic concepts is expressed in every language or culture. Math is something that can be communicated to anyone, even extra-terrestrials. 1679 is a semi-prime number no matter where you are in the universe.
And while math is something I find fascinating and interesting, and much of it is still out of my limits, this essay will go towards a form of communication that seems and sounds quite different, but may ultimately be more of the same: music*. I consider music to be the true international** language – every culture has its own songs and instruments, and these voices can be shared and appreciated without any additional knowledge.
Music can convey a whole lot. Music can invoke: the pentatonic scale of the Orient, the cowbell of Latin America, the plagal cadence of Christian hymns. Music is often at the core of nationalism and at the heart of religion. Music is used to set the tone of an event - whether it's the sound of a string orchestra tuning, the opening chord of Mendelssohn's Wedding March, or the first few notes of Hedwig's theme.
There's a quality of music that allows the simple vibration of air particles hitting our eardrums to convey so much, and I wish I was smart enough to understand these complexities. It's powerful stuff, perhaps more so than NZT. The moment when the crowd sang O Canada at the Gold medal hockey game felt just as unifying and patriotic as Crosby's overtime goal, both times where everyone could stand proud as a Canadian.
There are subtleties to music that are really amazing too - perhaps these are what fascinate me the most. Any trained pianist can play a Bach Invention, but few can capture the same tone that Glenn Gould mastered. Back when I took lessons, my piano teacher would ask me how my week was, based on how I played the first piece of the hour. I never took notice on how I played differently, but she was able to tell whether I had an inspiring or stressful week, just by listening.
I wish I could understand more of how music works. How can pressing a sequence of keys on the piano with precise timing, speed, and pressure produce such beautiful music? It gets even more complicated with other instruments like the viola and the oboe, with even more variations on tone and pitch. It's almost magical.
And personally, I don't believe that understanding the science behind a mystery necessarily makes it less alluring. Studying biochemistry has not lowered my appreciation of the miracle of life. Knowing that my phone can solve sudokus does not make completing them any less fun***. I feel that knowing the math and physics behind music can allow us to enhance what we already know, and create new revolutionary ideas in music. Take the theremin for example:
The theremin is just the surface. It allows one to adjust the pitch and volume (wavelength and amplitude for the physicists) to replicate some of the world's most beautiful melodies. If we could uncover more of the subtleties behind music, we would be able to understand how musical instruments - vocal chords included - can stir passion, make us cry, and bring us joy.
Music is already used in ballets and ballads to conveys stories. [The Russians are really good at this in my opinion.] Just like the written language, music contains the emotion of the artist - articulating Bach's preludes and fugues; music reminds us of the law and protests against the governments during the Vietnam War as sung by Bob Dylan, and the Beatles; music keeps a record of a country's history expressed in nationalist pieces like Sibelius' Finlandia; and music provides a glance into the thoughts in Beethoven's mind as he was composing his ninth symphony while he was deaf.
There is much about music that fascinates me, and even more I don't understand. I suppose I'll have to live without knowing, but then again, maybe I'll just compose a song that expresses my confusion and leave this for future generations. But I haven't even studied much music to have much confidence or knowledge in composing, so maybe for now, I'll just wish that I was smart enough to write polyphonic music.
Note, if you liked "balldroppings", which was a nice mesh of physics and music, you'll also like this, which is more mathy than physicsish, but just as fun. Interesting note, it uses the pentatonic scale, so everything'll sound pleasing.
*Which shouldn’t be too much of a surprise if you’ve paid attention to the title, labels, or preamble link.
**I stop short at universal, or even cross-species, because sharing music assumes an overlapping audible range, and assumes that our fellow aliens can detect sound waves.
***See a demo here: phone vs. sudoku
