The Sachs article made me consider the many elements and effects of music that I had never previously thought of. I feel like the many concepts mentioned in the article were concepts we were all subconsciously aware of, but had never consciously thought about. I was especially struck by Sach’s remark in the opening paragraph about music having “no concepts,” making “no propositions,” lacking “images, symbols, the stuff of language,” “no power of representation,” and “no relation to the world.” How could something so unexplainable and abstract have such grandiose influences on us?
I completely agree with Sachs when he mentions that music has the “ability to move us, to induce feelings and moods, states of mind.” More than its one-dimensional effect of making us feel swept away and engulfed, music can also be a cue that triggers the retrieval of an earlier memory in our lives. I discover myself going through this many times. When I listen to a song an old friend introduced me to, I imagine the friend every time I listen to the song. Similarly, when I hear a song my mom and I would sing along to if it came on the radio in the car, I remember the setting in which my mom and I were singing along to it. Since I am an English major, I love and appreciate the things art can do to people’s lives. I always believed that good art, including literature and music, had this “ability” to take us somewhere. Art is a means of spiritual transport. A dose of good art should remove us from where we are now and take us somewhere else. This also relates to Sach’s mentioning of the sublime. I remember in an English course I took last year that we discussed that “beautiful” was a remark made upon mere sighting, whereas “sublime” was more of an experience. Good literature and good music should give us an experience of what the sublime is.
Consequently, I believe this is where I connect the dots to synesthesia. A specific song or tune being associated with a certain color or vibe may have much to do with the fact that music acts as a cue to retrieving one’s past memories. Remembering that I listened to a song lying in the grass fields may play a large part in establishing the synesthetic association, even if this past memory lies in my unconscious.