Musical Expression and Interpretation

By Rene Rodriguez

Fresno, Calif. ( KFSR)—Ohh, this thing we call music.  Music, according to Merriam-Webster’s traditional definition, is the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition with unity and continuity. That’s too much of an educational explanation if you ask me.  The truth is music is subject to interpretation. For example, I see music like a drug that I cannot recover from.  I keep relapsing and relapsing, either of happiness or of heartbreak, and I cannot let go of it. 

There are so many interpretations and definitions of music that it has almost become complicated to define.  The answer really becomes more personal because it is based on the eye of the beholder.  Or should I say the “ear” of the beholder?  Music invokes so many emotions in so many various settings.  It can be celebratory shouts that are accompanied by a sense of cultural pride and nationalism.  It can bring feelings of happiness and joy when you are at a wedding dancing, and you don’t want the party to stop, or it can bring an adrenaline rush when you hear your favorite song being sung live at a concert.

The lyrics are the soul of music. Pretty much any noun or verb you can come up with in your mind right now, and music has found a way to use that collection of words to tell a story that touches a human being’s heart. That story can be a song that explains the break-up of a relationship, the moment you move away, leaving everything you’ve known behind, or the song you remember when you became a success.  Music is a free therapy in a way.  A therapy that nobody ever knows they need until the heart calls for it.  Everyone’s interpretation, definition, and use of music is different based on the lives they have lived. 

John Karr is a music professor at Fresno State.  He teaches the history of pop, rock, and jazz music in the United States, among many other music classes.  I got a chance to speak to him about what, historically, music has meant to people as generations go by.

Karr said, “In terms of meaning, the one thing that stays constant is that there is a level of meaning there someplace for somebody.  Whether it’s to feel good, it makes you feel happy, it makes you feel more patriotic or whatever.  I mean, you know, there are different levels of meaning, and I think there’s no one way except that there is meaning,” says Karr.  “But what it means is the dicey bit because it means so many different things to so many different people.  I mean, play the same piece of music for two people, and you’re likely to get two different answers to what it means.  Lyrics help because they give us some clue about what the meaning is, but if it’s purely instrumental music, what does it mean?  If I play a chord, what does this mean?  And that’s where aestheticians and musicians get really all caught up in the weeds, so to speak because they don’t know how to answer that question because there is no answer.”

Karr also explained how music can impact human being’s decision-making and shape the world we live in today.

Karr said, “There are many examples of this in the 20th century.  For instance, Joseph Stalin had a central Soviet committee whose function was to make sure that music only supported the goals of the revolution and the goals of the central Communist state.  And they would say ‘this has to go’, ‘this can stay’, ‘this is no good’, ‘this is all right’.  There were composers sent to the gulags to compose music that was considered counter-revolutionary.  That was mainly because he felt that music does have the ability to bind you to a certain ideal or a certain ideology if it’s the right kind of music,” Karr says.  “We did the same thing in World War 2.  Look at Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1941 and its ultra, you know, Bugs Bunny is in a fighter plane bombing Japanese characters.  I mean, of course, art can manipulate opinion, and that makes it positive and dangerous.”

Music has a rich history that has touched not only generations of the past but also generations of today. With just about 70% of students with their earbuds on, it is safe to assume that all students have their own relationship with music.

Sarah Hernandez is a Broadcast Journalism major. She shared how listening to her favorite music makes her feel.

Hernandez said, “Honestly, listening to my favorite music makes me feel.  In other words, it kind of makes me feel happy and I get this sense like I can feel relaxed and feel like I can bump to it in the car.  Usually, that’s when most of the time I am listening to my music is in the car,” Hernandez says.  “And when I am at home, whenever I am feeling like in a really like, kind of, not in the most chipper mood in the world, I kind of just plug in my AirPods and I just listen to my favorite music that makes me feel like I am happy.”

Hernandez also talks about how music has been there for some of the most critical moments of her life.

“There have been a couple of times where I was going through this bad situation that I was in, and this guy really broke my heart completely because I wanted a relationship, and he didn’t,” said Hernandez.

“So, the music I would play then would be more of like monotone, kind of very saddish music,” says Hernandez.  “But it helped bring out an emotional side of me that I haven’t felt, and it made me cry for the first time in like years because I was able to feel something and feel and let that channel out that pain that I felt through that music and just through the lyrics that made me connect to it on like a deeper level.  So, I feel like, yeah, you know, you feel a connection, right, emotionally.  Most of the time, that’s when you can feel music, which is just through your emotions and everything.  So, yeah definitely.”

Katerina Aleksenko is a local musician who also studies Broadcast Journalism here at Fresno State. She goes by the stage name Kat Aleci. When she is not busy producing high-quality news stories, you can catch her at local bars and small venues performing original songs and covers for her loyal fans. I sat down with her and asked her what she was trying to accomplish with her audience as they listened to her words and her music.

“Music gives me a way to communicate with them on a level that maybe we really don’t understand how to express in any other way because music is really a universal language,” says Aleci. 

“And no matter if you understand the words you are saying or understand what the chords I’m playing are, you still understand the feeling and the meaning behind the song or the story.  So, when I play, it’s a way for me to give that experience or that story to the audience listening.”

Aleci also shares what emotions and feelings playing live music have brought to her when she is up on stage performing.

“When I’m sharing an original piece that I write, it’s always freeing and it’s kind of like an outlet.  So, it feels like I’m telling the audience my story and what I’ve been through, and it feels kind of like therapy,” Aleci said. 

“So, I get to experience nervousness and sadness and fear, anger, happiness, joy, freedom, peace, and if I can relay that in my music and in my voice, you know, playing the guitar a certain way, I can give those feelings as a gift to the people listening.”

Inspiration for songwriting, Aleci said, comes from her own personal experiences.

“When I first started writing music, when I first started playing guitar, I was actually going through my parent’s divorce.  So, that made me kind of depressed.  I was 12-13 years old, and I didn’t really know how to express what I was going through.  I mean, I didn’t even know what I was going through.  So, somebody gifted me a guitar, and I was able to just start kind of looking up chords by myself, and I had a friend teach me the first song, which was Bob Marley’s Redemption song, and I started using those chords to write my own music.  On the guitar,” Aleci shared. 

“And my inspiration comes from, you know, just things I go through in life like whether I’m depressed or whether I am sad.  One of the things I wrote about was like my dad leaving and moving across the country to the other side of the world, actually, to Russia.  And losing my brother as he was getting very experimental with drugs and that, you know, because of our closeness to my dad and to my brother, that really tore my heart out.  And I didn’t know who else to talk to about that besides my guitar, my music, and my notebook. So, that really led me into expressing myself through music and kind of sharing my story with others and how I got through it.”

Music is key.  It’s the way we’re set free from everything this world is throwing at us.  Every problem, every challenge, and every head-scratching stress.  Music is always there for you to give you one big hug and let you know that things are going to be alright and you’re not alone.