The Language of Music

Rolling Stones, Between the Buttons (outtake) ©Gered Mankowitz

Music is one of the most common of human languages. Some might say, because of its accessibility, that music is our most common language. Words like composition, structure, style, mood find their use in describing literary work and painting as much as in describing music. Completely abstract, as language and communication can often be, the music and rhythms we hear stimulate, relax, engage us literally from infancy.

Melodies and lyrics help carry the written and unwritten human narrative from place to place, generation to generation, era to era reaffirming hope and personal aspirations, giving outlet for frustrations and sadness, calling us to action or leading us to rest.

And any person or image associated with the music that moves us becomes an extension of the music itself and what it means to us. Music and music-makers become part of the fabric of our lives in part for their ability to “read a culture's mind” and broadcast what they’ve read to the rest of us.

Lou Reed, Transformer ©Mick Rock

Sometimes a simple song can be as water in our canteen as we approach the challenges of the day or it can be the method we use to let go of our burdens when we come home. Music can lift us to dance, to remember our hopes and dreams or act as the last push that causes us to fall in love. Those who effectively express places of their hearts and minds by voice and crafted instrument to reach the hearts and minds of others are honored as any hero might be, as they should. These are the poet philosophers, evangelists of ideals, counselors and consolers during love’s seasons.

Not many of us can bridge human feelings and experiences across time and space to bind cultures, people, generations. We exhibit the art and photography, both online and off, that deliver clues and act as aesthetic ambassadors of the music and musicians they serve. It is our way to pay homage to music’s visionaries who, by their unique gifts and efforts, knit us together globally across time with their universal language and the imagery their work germinates.