Earlids? (Experimental Video)

 "One must be disinterested, accept that a sound is a sound and a man is a man, give up illusions and ideas of order, expressions of sentiment, and all the rest of our inherited aesthetic claptrap."

John Cage, via Marshall McLuhan. The Medium Is The Massage p. 64

What's that music?

Jana Casey playing a measure of reported "faerie music".  

In old folklore and fairytales, it's said that humans who hear the bells, flutes, and strings of distant faerie music get swept up in their dancing, wasting away their life in a matter of moments. I happen to have a book of stories where the author, Brian Froud (of fantastic Jim Henson films!) notes down a single measure of music that he got from a man who claimed it was all he could recall after hearing it in the distance. You'll have to tell me of any misfortune that befalls you if you choose to play the video. (sorry.)

It could have been that I was already searching for a reason to play that bit of music out loud, but I kept returning to it while I was thinking through McLuhan's pondering about hearing, visual bias, and "ear illiteracy", (McLuhan 60). In my mind, these concepts connect to the "myth" of faerie music through shared ideas about the all-encompassing, overwhelming, even suspicious, nature of sound. How sound differs fundamentally from anything visual or written because it won't stay put. I guess that that is somewhat scary for us people who see about lots of things on our devices before we hear about them.

by Brian Proud

"The ear favors no particular 'point of view'. We are enveloped by sound. It forms a seamless web around us. We say, 'Music shall fill the air.' We never say, "Music shall fill this particular segment of the air.'" (60)

Faerie music particularly points to how sound is about noticing and moving on, although I think McLuhan would be interested if we paid more attention to sound, and its ability to be impartial.  For me, the idea of faerie music shows how there has always been some concept of forbidden ideas or unreachable answers. This idea that we can't think about multiple things at once or our heads will explode. Metaphorically, sound is always more than one, so it can't be relied on. Unfortunately, it does encourage not to listen at all, to be paranoid. 

Does it still make you uncomfortable to hear this music while thinking about all the meaning given to it, or is it just a story now that it has been written down? Many things from these days have the importance of faerie music: I'm thinking of how the internet is a rabbit hole with whatever answer you are seeking at the bottom, I guess, but also of the value we place on explaining, which is sometimes a bit too much more then we give to experiencing. 

An overwhelming spiral

Some overcrowded goblins, by Brian Froud

On a final note, I think there is also a connection between the idea of faerie music, and my own damaging habit of getting into entirely repetitive "thought spirals," that make me feel like the world is ending. In those moments, sound takes on a frighteningly unreal quality, because the noise in my head begins to leak out, and feel like real noise from all around. I know I'm definitely not the only one who experiences this. Like listening to a single measure of music over and over again, thoughts seem alarmingly concrete and important when they won't shut up. In reality, it's just a single measure, or a single thought, that's acquired a bit too much emphasis. 

(This is my space. Why is my voice so academic?)

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