Art as a Mirror

1. The analogy

What makes art? What makes music? 

When we speak, we produce sound waves that can have varying pitch and rhythm, and yet our speech is not considered music. So why do we consider Beethoven's fifth to be a piece of music, when it is also essentially made of sound waves produced by an orchestra? Also, if we can write an essay, or draw a picture, both using pen and paper, why must we distinguish one scribbling from the other?

I think the reason we discriminate speech from music, written passage from drawing, lies in the analogy of the mirror. And the analogy is, that art (which includes music as one of its forms) is anything that can act as a mirror to our soul.  


2. The mirror

A mirror, as we learn at school, works by reflecting light. We can say that it is usually made of two layers. It has a transparent layer made of glass. And behind the glass there is an opaque layer of coating, that can be made of substances such as silver or aluminum.

The glass in itself will not reflect much light, although it can act as a two way mirror if we place it between two rooms with different lighting levels. The glass between the two rooms will reflect images of people in the brighter room, whilst making them visible to those people in the dark room.

Of course, when a glass is coated with an opaque substance, including shiny ones like silver or aluminum, the coating layer acts as a dark room. When we look into this glass mirror, we stand in the brighter room, so to speak, and so we can see our reflection in the mirror.


3. The music

Speech is simply a tool for communication. No one would argue otherwise. But who can tell what is music?

If music is simply an art form, then we can probably test our analogy and compare it to a mirror. Like a mirror, a musical piece must also be composed of two layers. It must have a 'transparent' component, and an 'opaque' layer. 

Its 'transparent' component is made of the features that music share with speech, or the features that make music easily understood. These include the explicit information that a piece of music may carry, such as its mood, and the literal interpretation of the lyrics that may accompany the music. Just like when we listen to somebody speak, we can immediately get the tone of his speech (happy, angry, formal, playful) and the information the speaker is trying to convey to us; so in music, when we listen to a song, we can tell whether it is a happy, or sad song, and what the lyrics may literally mean. (Thus, music can be transparent)

However, by being merely 'transparent', a piece of music can only carry a certain meaning, or rigid interpretation, and so we can no longer appreciate it as an art form. This is how we perceive our national anthem and ringtone, to give some examples. These have a direct and literal meaning to them - a national identity, or a call alert.

Therefore, music must also have a 'deeper layer of opacity', to act as a mirror. This is the incomprehensible, obscured part of music. It can be compared to the dark room on the other side of a two way mirror, or the silver coating of a glass mirror. This is the part of music that makes it a mystery to us, and distinguishes it from speech. To illustrate, imagine you calling a friend and then reading him a paragraph from a news website. Then, you suddenly start singing the next paragraph to him.

At first when you read the news to your friend, he would listen and immediately understand what you are talking about. However, when you start singing to him from the same news website, you will almost certainly confuse him, and he may also begin doubting your sanity. Of course, if you can sing well, that paragraph from the news which was originally only a piece of information, can be turned into music quite easily, by the peculiar way you read it aloud.

In other words, singing starts when we cannot be sure why the singer speaks in a certain way. Ironically, even though we could not fully 'understand' his song, we can still very well enjoy it. This is only because music, like a mirror, can show us our reflection. 


4. The reflection

Even after comparing it to a mirror, we may still wonder how music can produce our reflection. The answer lies in how we try to make sense of the peculiarities of music. This is similar to the way we try to make sense of the strangeness and obscurity of other forms of art, including painting, poetry or sculpture.

What we may not have realized is that our interpretation, or the way we make sense of the strangeness of a piece of art is unique to each of us. This is not just about how we differ in our preference of one art over another. In fact, just like how a good mirror can show us a clear reflection, a good piece of art will reveal our reflection clearly.

As mentioned before, our reflection is produced in art when we attempt at an interpretation. This is because our interpretation is inextricably linked to our past experience, knowledge and personality - all of which are unique to each of us. For example, Beethoven's fifth symphony may sound the same to all our ears, but we inevitably will all perceive it differently. Some may say, "It's the sound of Fate". While others may agree with a Youtube commenter who thought, "Star Wars sounds like this". 





By showing us our reflection, art can be a useful way for us to find out more about ourselves. But we must also be careful, as our obsession with art, like an obsession with looking at mirrors, can only be a further proof of our vanity (read: narcissism).

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The top image is that of Narcissus, by Caravaggio (source: Wikipedia)