What Is Music?

Detail from a painting, private collection.

Music is emotion put to sound. Music is a rendition of the inner experience of a conscious being that is too rich and complex to be conveyed merely by words, experience transformed into sound, layers of sounds, combinations of textures of sound and rhythms to communicate something about what it is like to be alive and to experience living through the refracting lens of the being or beings who create it.

Therefore music is art, that which conveys what it is to be alive, and not only that, by sharing idiosyncratic and unique consciousness, it creates consciousness among those who discover that their own inner lives, feelings, and experiences resonate with the symbol, the representation, of another’s experience. Therfore music is also a medium for creating shared consciousness and for creating connections among people who might otherwise never congregate or feel connected at all. And as a repository of or placeholder for collective experience and meaning, it can become something like a container and catalyst for shared memory, history, identity, and emotion.

Music, therefore, is magic.

Music is a vibration, a frequency, both a carrier and a creator of consciousness and connection, something we cannot live without. Music both expresses our humanity and creates it, transmits it, and preserves it.

Music is not sonic wallpaper. Music is not a palliative to create zombie hive mind masses to control, anesthetize, extract from, or pen into experiential veal cages to distract and contain while suppressing life, innovation, creativity, or human interconnection. Music defies control. Music is alive. It breathes. It floats. It sees us, even when we fear to be seen.