Immagery and music

[gorbee natcase]

Have you ever played music that is vividly visual, and had like a spirritual experience and if so what do you associate different pieces of music with
ie Mozarts concertos conjure up feelings of summers long gone, where the air tasted cleaner and the world had no evil in it like a childs view.
But beethoven is too passionate he makes me think about the awsome nature of the universe,  music is so telling and so diverse,
Bach reminds me of a Bank mannager so strict and mathematical, He reminds me of Gordon Brown Chancilor MP  Can you dilliberatly convey immagery in music or is it completly personal for the individiual

or have you ever been physicly sick after playing a piece of music, curious as to where this will go

[Jacey1973]

Yes definitely. I understand what u mean.

Rachmaninov's piano music conjures up black and white films/old style romance/1940s to me.

The most interesting reaction i ever got to a piece of music is about a year ago when i heard Ligetis piano etudes performed at my University (not sure which ones) and although i found the music fascinating to listen to it made me feel physically nauseous! It was so strange, i don't mean in a bad way - it's not as if i didnt enjoy the music - quite the contrary! But the thick textures/complex harmonies kinda overloaded my brain perhaps?!

Better to get a reaction like that than nothing at all i reckon.

[planetdave]

I once heard Scriabin's Vers la Flamme in a surprising light. I had heard the piece several times before but this particular listening (Sofronitsky) had an effect of nausea and wonder. I know that Scriabin viewed the flame as a cleansing agent (not recommended for wooden surfaces). I thought of it as a process of cleansing the soul of the flesh by flame. The piece acknowledges (at the beginning) the deep fear and mystery of what is to take place. It catalogues this disgusting proceedure and arrives at transcendence.

[alzado]

Clearly composers actually tried to achieve such effects.

Case in point, Debussy's "The Sunken Cathedral."

The word "image" is not exclusively visual.  The sound of tolling cathedral bells in Debussy is a very definite image.  Auditory, in this case.

[planetdave]

Absolutely, alzado.
"Images" can also mean physical feelings...as with Couperin's Tender Languors.

[ted]

Oh yes, Gorbee, my imagination runs riot while listening and playing. I have also found that, for me at least, it is better to generate my own programmes and images and ignore all associations, set programmes, details of composers and so on. I did not enjoy Bach for years because of a persistent image, gleaned through reading about him, of a religious, pedantic old ignoramus who pumped his wife full of kids until he killed her. Once I separated the sound of his music from these negative images and attached thoughts of my own, his music, particularly the forty-eight, sprang to life and I've liked it ever since.

So images are a double-edged sword in this sense. In my own music they often lie at the heart of things but generally, other people's images neither concern nor interest me. The miracle of music is that, in itself, it is completely abstract. We attach such thoughts as we please.

[pianohopper]

My teacher says that every song tells a story.  The story, I suppose, depends on the person.  It's completely different for somebody sitting in the audience than for the person playing.  People have asked me before about what I think of when I play.  I say "the notes" because the truth is just way too personal. 

"Oh, i could just see meadows of daisies with rabbits prancing around."
and I'm thinking, what are you smoking, lady?  I was picturing a train crash.

[quantum]

Scriabin Sonata No.5.  Quite vivid and detailed. 

[Barbosa-piano]

Most of classical music creates images in my mind, but the most recent ones are the pieces in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exibition, they sound great, you can really picture those names.