the return of quotables .

First of all, I want to extend a Happy New Year to all who read this. I hope that your celebrations were all as perfect as I'm sure you wanted them to be, and that maybe you were able to snag yourself a New Year's kiss. So to kick off 2012, I'm going to start with a quote that I read today by Hans Christian Andersen: "Where words fail, music speaks."


Such a simple line is really so complex in so many ways. Music is like a language, but a language without words. Of all the senses, I think I prefer that of aural sense, and music is without a doubt the number one reason for that. There is something that simply cannot be explained about the beauty of it. Another music-related quote I love is Leo Tolstoy's "Music is the shorthand of emotion." It explains how music can take so many feelings, emotions, and expressions, and bundle them up in a small way so that it floods into your system as if a hurricane has hit your senses.

I love that there is an endless possibility when it comes to music. Just thinking about what has happened in my short lifetime, I can recall discovering the classic rock of days past, but then getting more into electronic production, and hearing new styles entirely like dubstep. It is something that is constantly evolving, constantly pushing the envelope, and yet no one person can ever reach musical satisfaction because there are no limits; there is no end. Such an eternity of possibilities has never happened in such a way.

For me, music helps to express that which cannot be said in words, exactly as Andersen has said. If I have a particular feeling I'm going for when I'm writing, I always put on the appropriate tune to get me into the mood. Whether it's sadness or joy, or even inspiration, I'm always able to find something.

One last thing I'd like to bring up is movie soundtracks. Now, I don't think this is too terribly common but I download a ton of movie soundtracks. And not just songs that have been used in movies, but the scores; the music that has been composed. This is where the magic lays. I think that most of the feelings spilled over the audience in a movie comes from that background music, and every time the composer gets the desired feeling spot on. So perhaps if you haven't already, it'd be interesting to listen specifically for the music when you're watching a movie -- you may discover some magic yet.