Music is more than just words coupled with harmony and instruments. Music, like most (arguably all) forms of art and media, tell stories. Stories are certainly important, for they convey, or better put, reflect, what it means to be human; the human experience, the hardships of life—joy, pain, suffering, the universal struggle, the why. Bluntly put, we don’t know much about why we’re here on this floating sphere of sea and land amidst the lonely, dark abyss that is the universe. Perhaps it's a stretch to say that music can answer (or even grapple) with the existential questions that plague human existence; but what it can do, and what it (In my most humble opinion) succeeds in doing, is (through the resonance of melody and careful choice in
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In this explanation, he tells the story of men, chained against a wall, their heads fixed in a way that they can only see the wall in front of them (208-212, Plato). On this wall they see shadows of figures produced by a puppeteer who dangles figures in front of a fire directly behind them. These shadows are all the men know of, for they were born and have lived their entire life in this cave, knowing not of the outside world. To these men, the wall, the figures, and the darkness, is all they know—it is there reality. Socrates then explains, little by little, the transformation of individuals who are one day released from their constrictions and eventually bear witness to a different, higher form, of life. Socrates highlights the struggle that comes from this seemingly life shattering revelation, and this same sentiment is found in the lyrics of Mumford’s and Son song “The cave”, as we soon will
In this explanation, he tells the story of men, chained against a wall, their heads fixed in a way that they can only see the wall in front of them (208-212, Plato). On this wall they see shadows of figures produced by a puppeteer who dangles figures in front of a fire directly behind them. These shadows are all the men know of, for they were born and have lived their entire life in this cave, knowing not of the outside world. To these men, the wall, the figures, and the darkness, is all they know—it is there reality. Socrates then explains, little by little, the transformation of individuals who are one day released from their constrictions and eventually bear witness to a different, higher form, of life. Socrates highlights the struggle that comes from this seemingly life shattering revelation, and this same sentiment is found in the lyrics of Mumford’s and Son song “The cave”, as we soon will