Muna2r
What does "resolve" in this context mean? “I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way. I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened.” I'm trying to translat this quote but I didn't understand what does resolve here " jazz music doesn't resolve" and here "God didn't resolve" mean?
Mar 31, 2017 2:03 PM
Answers · 4
1
Regarding jazz: Resolve can be a musical expression. You need to know something about music theory in order to understand the claim that jazz music doesn’t resolve.. Here is one definition of “resolve”: Pass or cause to pass into a concord during the course of harmonic change: ‘dissonant notes resolve conventionally by rising or falling to form part of a new chord’ ‘you would not want to resolve a melodic line on to the minor sixth interval’ Regarding God: It’s open to interpretation what it means. My guess is that God doesn’t resolve problems. The world is full of evil and pain, but God doesn’t resolve those problems.
March 31, 2017
1
Listen to this piece of music, "God Save the Queen," the national anthem of the United Kingdom: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN9EC3Gy6Nk To people in the Western European musical tradition, this music contains a series of harmonies that give a sense of tension, and a sense of progress, as if we were somehow "moving." At about 0:22, we reach a chord which gives a sense of rest, relaxation, and stability. The "tension" of the preceding chord progression has been "resolved." The musical problem has been solved, it feels as if the chords have ended up in the right place, where they ought to be. It's not quite as obvious to me here, in the national anthem of Saudi Arabia as played at the Olympics, but nevertheless I hear it at about 0:10, 0:20 and other places. The harmony progression stops moving and reaches a natural position of rest. It "resolves." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEs90t7XooA I'm not sure what is meant by saying "jazz music doesn't resolve," but I suppose it depends on the particular jazz style. As for "God doesn't resolve" I guess it just means life flows on; in the words of a song by Harry Chapin, "no clear-cut beginnings, so far no dead ends."
March 31, 2017
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