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miko2Yesterday on NPR (All Things Considered I believe) they made constant reference to the old saying about "singing about architecture."
At the time I couldn't remember how the complete phrase went exactly, or who it came from. But today they got a complaint from a listener, because the correct statement is "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."
Which is an Elvis Costello statement.
Anyway this statement has always bugged me just a little. On the one hand, I know what Mr. Costello was getting at... listening to music is an experience that you can't replicate via any other medium. You can TRY to describe what listening to a song is like, or how the song affects you, or you can try to describe the song itself. Heavens know thousands and tens of thousands of music reviewers have tried. But the review has not yet been written that conveys to the reader exactly what they will experience when they go listen to the song by itself.
Music is weird. Music affects and manipulates our emotions in ways that nothing else can. Music enters our brain through a different door than other information. It makes connections and associations with memories and places and times so that, years later, when we hear that piece of music we remember a specific time/place/event clearly.
Several songs remind me not just of riding the bus to school when I was young, but of very specific streets that we were heading down while that song was playing. There's no real reason for me to remember these things, and without a specific musical association, I'm sure I wouldn't remember them so vividly.
Anyway, this is the reason people often use music to help teach. It works.
So... I can understand that Elvis Costello was saying that listening to music is something that you can't effectively convey in words. Not exactly, at any rate.
But...
I'm a writer. I know that the written language is one of the most amazing and wonderful things in existence. There is really no better way to tell a story, in my opinion. Movies can be more specific in their imagery and more visceral, verbal stories can convey the author's immediate emotions more vividly, plays and radio dramas and comics and all other mediums have their own unique advantages, but reading a book is the most intimate way to experience a good story. It's just you and the author, and in many respects it's more about you than even the author... as you read, the story unfolds in your head, and at whatever pace is comfortable for you. When it's done right you almost feel as if you've lived through the story along with the characters you were reading about.
Nothing else works quite like that. And the written word can go anywhere or do anything. There's nothing that can be imagined that can not be placed into words, that can not be described or inserted into a good story.
So when I hear Mr. Costello's famous statement, I take it with a grain of salt. Mr. Costello is a musician. He is a brilliant writer, as far as lyrics go. I don't know enough about him to say whether he writes much or any prose. But to me his statement betrays that he thinks as a musician and not as a writer. Because as a writer, my first reaction to that statement is: "Oh yeah? I can write about anything I want to!"
And if I'm a good writer, people are going to get a lot out of what I write. It might not be the same experience as listening to a song, but it will be just as engrossing and/or informative in its own way.
It most certainly will convey more to the reader than the very best dance about the most interesting bit of architecture anyone could invent.
And I could write about that dance too, if I wanted. ^_^
At the time I couldn't remember how the complete phrase went exactly, or who it came from. But today they got a complaint from a listener, because the correct statement is "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."
Which is an Elvis Costello statement.
Anyway this statement has always bugged me just a little. On the one hand, I know what Mr. Costello was getting at... listening to music is an experience that you can't replicate via any other medium. You can TRY to describe what listening to a song is like, or how the song affects you, or you can try to describe the song itself. Heavens know thousands and tens of thousands of music reviewers have tried. But the review has not yet been written that conveys to the reader exactly what they will experience when they go listen to the song by itself.
Music is weird. Music affects and manipulates our emotions in ways that nothing else can. Music enters our brain through a different door than other information. It makes connections and associations with memories and places and times so that, years later, when we hear that piece of music we remember a specific time/place/event clearly.
Several songs remind me not just of riding the bus to school when I was young, but of very specific streets that we were heading down while that song was playing. There's no real reason for me to remember these things, and without a specific musical association, I'm sure I wouldn't remember them so vividly.
Anyway, this is the reason people often use music to help teach. It works.
So... I can understand that Elvis Costello was saying that listening to music is something that you can't effectively convey in words. Not exactly, at any rate.
But...
I'm a writer. I know that the written language is one of the most amazing and wonderful things in existence. There is really no better way to tell a story, in my opinion. Movies can be more specific in their imagery and more visceral, verbal stories can convey the author's immediate emotions more vividly, plays and radio dramas and comics and all other mediums have their own unique advantages, but reading a book is the most intimate way to experience a good story. It's just you and the author, and in many respects it's more about you than even the author... as you read, the story unfolds in your head, and at whatever pace is comfortable for you. When it's done right you almost feel as if you've lived through the story along with the characters you were reading about.
Nothing else works quite like that. And the written word can go anywhere or do anything. There's nothing that can be imagined that can not be placed into words, that can not be described or inserted into a good story.
So when I hear Mr. Costello's famous statement, I take it with a grain of salt. Mr. Costello is a musician. He is a brilliant writer, as far as lyrics go. I don't know enough about him to say whether he writes much or any prose. But to me his statement betrays that he thinks as a musician and not as a writer. Because as a writer, my first reaction to that statement is: "Oh yeah? I can write about anything I want to!"
And if I'm a good writer, people are going to get a lot out of what I write. It might not be the same experience as listening to a song, but it will be just as engrossing and/or informative in its own way.
It most certainly will convey more to the reader than the very best dance about the most interesting bit of architecture anyone could invent.
And I could write about that dance too, if I wanted. ^_^
