How Performers Connect With Us Through Music

Description
Music has the power to arouse strong feelings and recall memories and the performer is the conduit to communicate this emotion. But it is actually far more complex than that. Join me, Steven Hobé, as we take a minute to get the scoop!

Fun Fact
We’ve all had those ‘Proustian rush’ moments when a piece of music, or a single movement or even a phrase, provokes an involuntary memory, sometimes with physical side-effects such as goosebumps or shivers. Sometimes we want to feel uplifted or transported by music, taking us out of ourselves and the mundanity of everyday life to another place, to experience something touching or transcendent. Such moments, and the memory of them, are very special and individual.

About Steven
Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.

A Note To Music Students et al.
All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.

Got a topic? Pop me off an email at: TCMMPodcast@Gmail.com 

Transcript

Igor Stravinsky once said, “Most people like music because it gives them certain emotions such as joy, grief, sadness [...] a subject for daydreams or – still better – oblivion from everyday life”. Wise words from the master himself.

Like speech, music contains an acoustic code for expressing emotion. Every listener then decodes or interprets this in a personal and unique way.

When you think about it, from the vision of the composer to the interpretation of the performer to the listener’s ears, it’s a complex series of variables that truly is magical.

The performer is the conduit to communicate this emotion. The language of music is interpreted by the performer, just as an actor with a script on stage.

The performer must also balance technical prowess with expression. In a concert situation, there are added variables such as the concert hall itself, the mindset of the listener and the performer’s interpretation at that moment.

In a live concert, there can be a collective concentration of audience and performer. An unspoken commonality of experience and yet distinct to each individual.