Introduction: Beyond the Communicative

As discussed in the previous chapters, music, perhaps more than anything else, wields the capacity to elicit frisson. Whether it is something dissonant that causes us to wince, or something beautiful inducing tears or goosebumps— music, or something approaching music, such as the musicalization of the voice in poetry, or the musicalization of the image, is nearly magical in its ability to affect us. Is it any wonder then that so many ritualistic or religious services incorporate music? Eric Shouse agrees, observing that, “Music provides perhaps the clearest example of how the intensity of the impingement of sensations on the body can ‘mean’ more to people than meaning itself.” Music (or any aural stimulus for that matter) does not always serve a “communicative” function. Though one could say that “raw” rhythmic beats or harmonic tone is still “communicative.” That all said, and the point being that music has no imperative to convey “meanings” as such, and more than this we perceive music not only through aural perception, rather it touches us. The ontological nature of sound is that physical waves are transmitted through the air and strike our bodies (not just our ears). And perhaps this is why music (in particular) has the capacity to move us, because it is by its very nature a sensual experience. Shouse observes further that, “the pleasure that individuals derive from music has less to do with the communication of meaning, and far more to do with the way that a particular piece of music ‘moves’ them.” Shouse admonishes though, that “it would be wrong to say that meanings do not matter, it would be just as foolish to ignore the role of biology as we try to grasp the cultural effects of music.” Shouse also notes that music does not have a monopoly on the affective experience, clearly, and that many other things elicit sensations from the body is evidenced throughout this volume. All told though, music and those things approaching music are especially attuned to eliciting sensations from the body.

What follows are instances where the voice and/or the image is musicalized. In our first example, I will discuss Spike Lee's 25th Hour, precisely because it is so blatantly abject, and yet has the capacity to elicit the beautiful. Our primary protagonist's hate-filled direct-address diatribe is musicalized in its rhythmic delivery and somehow tumbles over into the beautiful.