A single vibrating string is echoed in a movie. A slow stroke on a cello’s base string created sound vibrations to accompany a movie scene. That resonance stayed with me long after the movie ended. Notes such as that suggested a foreboding event about unfold. Particular frequencies of piano, cello, and bassoon evoke emotions for me. These vibrations bring up feelings that quickly rise in my chest. I gasp to try to hold back tears. Why do musical vibration create this uncontrollable upwelling?
I have always been interested in how the background affects the foreground. Many collage pieces prove this. ( a sample accompanies this). I take away the busyness of a background to focus the viewer to the subject. The same holds true for photography. Choosing the background is as important as the subject. The background enhances the subject. That cello note vibrates right into my brain and releases a powerful feeling. I felt overwhelmed for a moment. It was a perfect communion of movie subject and music, combined to create a strong reaction.
Every person reacts to vibrations differently. This same thing happens to me when I hear bagpipes. A shiver runs up my spine. Physical vibrations also fascinate me. Ripple marks at the beach. This could be considered music made visible. Circular waves from a pebble dropped in a placid pond; a cloud pattern called “Mackerel sky” called that because of the repeated stripes n the flanks of a fish by that name.
These examples are different from a cello note, they begin to open a door into a bigger picture. From the very beginning of the Universe, the first atom began vibrating. The motions of electrons around the nucleus, the beginning of light waves, earthquakes, tsunami’s, and countless other examples prove to me that we are inundated by a huge variety of vibrations.
Cedar Beach after a nor’easter in 2004 left me with the vibrations of
light, sand, and snow fencing
While sitting on a chair in a library for a safe driving course, I suddenly felt my chair vibrate. I looked at the floor, it too was vibrating. It was an earthquake that occurred in the Hudson Valley. The vibrations from that event reached Long Island.
Every sound comes from a vibration. Some of these have an astonishing impact on us. I love to hear the song of a Mourning Dove in the early morning. I love to hear the steady rhythmic beat of a drummer drumming.
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary:
Sympathetic vibration is “a vibration produced in one body by the vibrations of exactly the same period in a neighboring body.” To give a physics explanation of this essay is beyond my ability.
Back in the ‘60s the age of flower children, the phrase “good vibes” was popular. The opposite term “bad vibes” can be explained by the sensations we pick up from beyond our bodies that either make us feel good or bad. Let’s hope that each of us have only good vibes.
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