Vision
More attention for symbolism.
Symbolism and meaning of music
Symbolism is the key to the music of Alex Ruis. He assumes that meaning in general and symbolism in harmony in particular have more or less influence on people's thoughts. At least you may become aware of this symbolism through monophony, homophony or polyphony. In the latter cases also super- and subordination and dominant to equal parties. These are perceptible even to less sensitive listeners. He experiences equality and freedom when listening to free contrapuntal music. Dictation and subordination through copying behavior in imitative music. Followership, sometimes suppression in homophonic music. Even in no-obligation styles.
Making music in itself is trying to influence the mind with variations on primal sounds. Therefore, to counteract feelings of unimportance and other psychical disharmony, Alex Ruis’ music is built on stylish simultaneous, equal tunes. Which have no intention to imitate each other. So these are free and less dependent of one another than in e.g. canons, fugues. Different tunes express equally different attitudes, feelings, opinions, etcetera.
Moreover, music is a universal language. A rather mysterious language that can communicate the unspeakable. Which contributes to both its popularity and difficulty in translation. Music is a language of feeling and no word is equal to the feeling it is supposed to express. Nevertheless, language has meaning for the one who tries to understand it.
Of course, music comes from many more easily perceivable components such as sound and rhythm. These have been described in detail in various documents. The content that arises from the composition of those parts is what music may also be about as far as he is concerned.
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Typical for symbolism - like in musical harmony - is, that the meaning is multi-interpretable. Still you may safely conclude that the:
upper tune stands for:
VIP’s
influential persons
upper class
leader
head
superconsciousness
and much more
middle tunes stand for:
common people
middle class
secondary
trunk
consciousness
and much more
lower tune stands for:
simple people
lower class
subordinate
feet
subconsciousness
and much more
Tunes do not have to be accompanied by chords, which are secondary to a melody. Because this is a vision of music that is more in keeping with totalitarian regimes. In that vision music should emphasize, above all, that in life it’s all about who dominates, who plays the first violin. But tunes can stand up for themselves. Together with other tunes they can reach agreements, which can lead to chords. That is why the middle tunes are usually not less important than the top or bottom tunes.
Alex Ruis believes that music should not necessarily be about freedom and equivalence, but that balance plays a leading role in it. To contribute to the restoration of balance in Western music, the mid-tones in Alex Ruis' music are sometimes more important than the high notes. It is live and let live in this music, which is totally of this time, because there is more demand from people to be considerate of them!
Proverbs and sayings about music
Sayings and proverbs about music can contain clues about how music relates to other subjects. An important source of knowledge to understand the music of Alex Ruis.
Below are a number of Dutch proverbs and sayings related to his music:
Touch a sensitive string
Meaning: something is very sensitive for someone
Meaning: to be interested in a certain subject and someone who then pays attention to it
Cracking a hard note
Meaning: discussing things that are difficult
Meaning: doing a difficult job
Feed the overtone
Meaning: to say the most
Playing the first violin
Meaning: have the highest word and play the boss
Setting up a high-pitched tone
Meaning: pretend to be in charge
Singing a lower tune
Meaning: less bragging, less mouthing
Turn on another tone
Meaning: talk in a different way
There’s music in it
Meaning: being able to expect a lot from something and/or having fun from it
Sources
Source: Dutch proverbs
