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What is Musicality?

Hello fellow music lovers,

I am upgrading my system like a lot of us who follow Audiogon. I read a lot about musicality on Audiogon as though the search for musicality can ultimately end by acquiring the perfect music system -- or the best system that one can afford. I really appreciate the sonic improvements that new components, cables, plugs and tweaks are bringing to my own system. But ultimately a lot of musicality comes from within and not from without. I probably appreciated my Rocket Radio and my first transistor radio in the 1950s as much I do my high-end system in 2010. Appreciating good music is not only a matter of how good your equipment is. It is a measure of how musical a person you are. Most people appreciate good music but some people are born more musical than others and appreciate singing in the shower as much as they do listening to a high-end system or playing a musical instrument or attending a concert. Music begins in the soul. It is not only a function of how good a system you have.

Sabai
sabai
detlof
1,899 posts
 
For 14.99 they're a steal! They even have a chain to fix to your system, so the cat can't mess with them.
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Detlof,

Thanks for your thoughtful and sensitive posts.

For me musicality is a combination of a high level of artistry on the part of the performers, a deep appreciation for music and great sensitivity on the part of the listener, and a system that is good enough to reproduce performances well. This leaves a lot of leeway for interpretation. I believe that we are looking at a continuum here, not a single standard that can be written in stone and defined by absolutes. Nevertheless, there is a point at which one may say the performance was not moving, or the system was not up to reproducing the performance with sufficient nuance. As for the listener? How do you begin to talk about sensitivity and music appreciation without opening a Pandora's Box?
detlof
1,899 posts
 
Sabai,

thank you for your kind words. Pandora's Box indeed, judging from some of the remarks here.
There is no society on earth without some kind of music. In the old Chinese dynastes there were of the opinion, that if the music was "good", the state was in order. A good point perhaps, because music often seems to reflect the "mood" certain strata of society are in. Just think of jazz developing from the 30 of the last century onward.
Everyone knows that music can have a deep influence on our state of mind, but actually nobody really knows how this connecting of mind and organised sound is possible.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,308 posts
 
Is it the sound that makes us like music or the emotions that music creates that's the key?

I think the latter which makes it impossible to quantify what is musical or not.

I seem to recall even Vulcans with no emotions on Star Trek employed music. Most illogical! :-)
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,308 posts
 
I recently acquired a recording of Healing Tibetian Bell "music". I use quotes because its more of sounds than any music I am familiar with it. I will give it a play over the weekend and see if it draws me in. If so, then I suppose it is "musical"
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