Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Feelings and Relativity

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity.” Albert Einstein
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How I Write Songs (Part 8)

The above quote by a great man Albert Einstein has a lot to do in writing music as it is highly related to

a) Tempo
b) How tempo represents feeling
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Tempo Classification

From fastest to slowest, the common tempo markings are:

Prestissimo — extremely fast (200 - 208 bpm). Click here to listen to my Prestissimo Heartbeats.
Presto — very fast (168 - 200 bpm). Click
here to listen to my Presto Heartbeats.
Allegro — fast and bright or "march tempo" (120 - 168 bpm). Click
here to listen to my Allegro Heartbeats.
Moderato — moderately (108 - 120 bpm). Click
here to listen to my Moderato Heartbeats.
Andante — at a walking pace (76 - 108 bpm). Click
here to listen to my Andante Heartbeats.
Adagietto — rather slow (70 - 80 bpm). Click
here to listen to my Adageitto Heartbeats.
Adagio — slow and stately (literally, "at ease") (66 - 76 bpm). Click
here to listen to my Adagio Heartbeats.
Larghetto — rather broadly (60 - 66 bpm). Click
here to listen to my Larghetto Heartbeats.
Lento — very slow (40 - 60 bpm). Click
here to listen to my Lento Heartbeats.
Larghissimo — very slow (20 bpm and below). Click
here to listen to my Larghissimo Heartbeats.

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Tempo and Feelings

From the quote given by Einstein, Happy feeling is related to higher tempo. Sad feeling is related to slower tempo. Generally, in writing music, this is true BUT there are many other elements in music that can represents feelings. One of a very important element is MELODY.
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Quantifying Feelings
Yes, feelings can be quantified although generally, feelings are something felt. Below is a picture of a musical roll of a main melody of a song 'Terbang Lagi':

Do click for details.

Notice that the melody has the ups and downs movements.

Below is a price chart movement of Crude Palm Oil Futures Contract:



Do click for details.

Question: What does a futures price chart has to do with music?
Answer: EVERYTHING :-)

(Hint: I did mention about our human nature to feel where the most extreme optimistic feeling is GREED and the most extreme pessimistic feeling is FEAR).

More about this in my future entries.

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On YouTube

I have posted a new music video of an old song of mine: Teringatkan Kamu (Thinking of You).

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To Feel

"Sometimes, I can really feel you".