Jacob Collier on Exploring Emotions through Music

Summary

In this article, we explore the different tiers of emotions presented in Jacob Collier’s video, where he challenges himself to play Londonderry Air or Danny Boy with increasingly complex emotions. Collier explains how he creates different moods through the use of triads, tonalities, chord structures, and timbre. He also dives into the challenges of portraying more complex, abstract emotions and how he grapples with them. We then go on to explore the writer’s personal experience of improvising on the piano with the intention of conveying different emotions.

Tier 1: Happy, Sad, Angry, Mysterious, Triumphant, and Serene
Tier 2: Frightened, Flirty, Confused, Dancy, and Peaceful
Tier 3: Peaceful with Depth, Resonant Harmony, Alienated, Longing, Introspective, and Vulnerable
Personal Experience: Navigating Emotions through Improvisation
Conclusion

Tier 1: Happy, Sad, Angry, Mysterious, Triumphant, and Serene

Collier begins by explaining how Tier 1 emotions are more straightforward and easier to portray through music. He describes the use of triads in creating happiness, where major and minor triads create a sense of consonance and stability. For sadness, he explains the use of solemn, transparent chord structures that convey a sense of weightiness. He then talks about the use of dissonance to create confusion and mystery and repeating chord structures to convey serenity.

Tier 2: Frightened, Flirty, Confused, Dancy, and Peaceful

Moving on to Tier 2 emotions, Collier tackles more abstract concepts such as fear, flirtation, confusion, and peacefulness. He describes the use of odd sounds and distant chords to create a sense of fear, while the addition of decorative elements adds some playfulness to the music, bringing out the flirty feeling. To create confusion, Collier explains the use of juggling tonalities, where the listener is unsure of where the music is headed harmonically. In Dancy, he describes the addition of dissonant bombs in B-flat Major, changing the way one experiences the tonality. Lastly, he illustrates the peacefulness of B-flat Major by utilizing different timbres.

Tier 3: Peaceful with Depth, Resonant Harmony, Alienated, Longing, Introspective, and Vulnerable

Collier progresses to the most subjective emotions in Tier 3, where he dives into more complex feelings such as peace with depth and introspection. He struggles to describe these abstract concepts, instead relying on his spontaneous thought process and musical intuition. He contends that it is hard to structure such feelings into something comprehensible for others.

Personal Experience: Navigating Emotions through Improvisation

The writer describes their personal experience of improvising on the piano to convey different emotions. They begin by feeling a sense of reconnection with a long-lost friend, bringing out a peaceful feeling in the music. They then move to a feeling of guilt and weightiness in the chords, evoking a deeper sense of introspection. After a period of uncertainty, the music reaches a resting point in F major. From there, the writer takes the listener on a journey of joyful and surprising musical ideas before returning to a peaceful and settled conclusion. The writer highlights the challenge in alchemizing their personal emotions into structured music that can be understood by others, and how the process itself can lead to a more nuanced and interesting musical output.

Conclusion

In this article, we explored Jacob Collier’s approach to portraying different emotions through music. We covered the different tiers of emotions, from the more straightforward to the complex and abstract. We then went on to explore the writer’s personal experience of improvising to convey different emotions, highlighting the challenge of transforming one’s feelings into structured music. Overall, this article has provided insight into the process of exploring and grappling with emotions through music, highlighting the transformative power of music in our lives.