Emotion and Art

In Class

Each student was asked to bring in either a poem, photo, painting, song, clip of a performance that has a strong emotional effect on them. I brought in a song by Leehom Wang, which is called 《你不知道的事》, which is roughly translated into "Things You Never Knew".

When I shared the song with other students in the class, it did not have the same emotional effect on the others as me. When I listen to the song, I feel sadness and a sense of lost, because of my experience that I have had with a friend. I believe that I sacrificed many things to support and please the friend, but many of the things were unknown. Hence, I don't think my friend knows how much I value him/her.

I personally think that the other students in class did not feel the same way as I did because the song was in Chinese, a language that was foreign to many of the students. When they could not understand the lyrics, they could only feel through the instrumental music and way how the singer expressed the song. They may know that the right emotion to feel while listening to the song is sadness due to the song's background music, but that may be the maximum emotion the other students might had felt at that moment. However, I feel more strongly because of the experience that is attached to the song. If it wasn't because of my experience, I would have just regard this song as another common sad ballad.

Emotion is essential when it comes to the appreciation of art. Without emotions, we can only look at art in a logical and rational mind. By then, we would probably not feel what the artist or singer is trying to express, but rather look at the technical abilities demonstrated through the piece of art. As a result, we will never be able to understand the message that the artist or singer is trying to convey.