What Is Music?

Before begnnng any research on the sub|ect of What Is Musc?, upon gvng the
queston some thought, we may a come up wth our own answers to t. Answers we
may reguary encounter ncude those such as that t s any sound, that t s some
sort of porta n to an artsts mnd; a way of connectng to ther own thoughts, or
possby that t s, n some ways, a anguage.
There are many, both professona and unprofessona opnons on what musc s, for
exampe, French modernst muscan Edgard Varese descrbed musc as organsed
sound/the movement of sound-masses, and many of my peers provded smar
answers. Ths s a statement wth whch surey many of us woud hestate to dsagree.
However, much can te us that musc s not smpy organsed sound and nothng
ese. For exampe, |ohn Cage and other muscans beeve ndetermnate musc s a
type whch can evoke reactons much n the same way that any other can, and, beng
somewhat random, ths can defntey not be descrbe as organsed.
Surey musc exsts as somethng somewhat more romantc than smpy organsed
sound; as somethng whch we can fee.
Amercan vocast and conductor Bobby McFerrn cams that, at |ust fve years of age,
he began cryng upon hearng a pece of pano musc beng payed from hs vng
room. He camed to vvdy remember havng cred, but aso to have had no reason to
have done so, other than the musc he was hearng.
Further evdence that musc s an emotona feeng s that sound s undenaby
somethng we physcay fee, n the form of movements or vbratons n the ar, and so
experencng musc s deepy reated to our own physoogy. When we hear any sound,
we are physcay beng touched, ths s no more obvous anywhere than t s n deaf
muscans. Deaf peope make musc, |ust ke those wth the abty to hear, as they can
fee t too, |ust more so n dfferent parts of ther body, wth hgher frequences
generay fet n the hgher parts of the body and ower frequences more so n the
ower parts such as the feet.
The urge to dance whe stenng to musc s a human feature whch reterates the
pont that musc s a feeng, or a connecton between us peope and sound. Some
cutures, ncudng many Afrcan trbes, don't even have a separate word for musc and
dance. Scentsts say there sn't a cogntve functon we have that does not, n some
way, respond to musc, and on top of ths, we have many physca reactons, such as
goosebumps. One of the few stmu for human-bengs ever experencng goosebumps
s ndeed the hearng, or perhaps feeng, of musc.
The more we research, graduay fndng out more and more about musc, we must,
though, begn to notce that t does have many uses and purposes, and that t s not
somethng we shoud gnore. It woud appear that musc s present and benefca to us
n many waks of fe.
Musc s provng tsef to be amost vta n educaton, and earnng to pay an
nstrument from an eary age s scentfcay proven to ad us n terms of other sks,
ke vsua sks and verba/ngustc ones such as readng and wrtng. Chdren around
10 years od wth musca tranng have been proven to be stronger n these areas than
those wthout.
Muscans are proven, n a smar way to the bnd, to have better audbe abty,
hearng sound wth more carty and compexty. The bran of an experenced muscan
s aso physcay dfferent, wth some areas of the cortex (whch pays a key roe n
memory, attenton, perceptua awareness, thought, conscousness, and anguage)
provng to be sgnfcanty arger. (a)
Language s another area n whch musc has proven to be very hepfu, and musc
coud even be seen as a anguage n tsef, arguaby the most unversa anguage n
exstence, perhaps due to t's nstnctve nature.
There s no evdence that Neanderthas had a spoken anguage of ther own, and so t
s suspected that ther voca tracts were used purey for makng musc, whch s key
to have been one of ther means of communcaton. We a make our own sense or
|udgement of the musc we hear, and athough everyone's ndvdua |udgements coud
be dfferent, much can be communcated through t successfuy, and advantageousy.
Athough every cuture may have t's own understandng of musc, t's unversa nature
has been underned n many ways. One of these s the proof that t s easy for
muscans from dfferent cutura backgrounds to make musc wth one another. As we
as ths, Afrcan trbespeope who'd never prevousy heard Western Musc took part n
an experment n whch they stened to our musc and ponted to pctures of faces
expressng emotons such as happy, scary and sad, based on what knd of reacton
they had upon stenng. A were consstent wth what us Westerners fet emotonay
n stenng to the very same peces of musc. (a)
Some cutures do not even have a word for 'musc', yet st perform t, and therefore
sten to t, ths s another suggeston that we have a unversa connecton of whch
musc s at the heart. Furthermore, scaes that were payed on very nstruments are
hghy smar to those payed n modern musc, and athough there are nconsstences
n what dfferent musca cutures consder consonant ntervas and dssonant
ntervas, much of ths s actuay agreeabe throughout musc. Whether ths s a resut
of Pythagoras' fndngs wth regards to harmony or those of other muscans s another
matter, but t perhaps suggests that musc s somewhat nstnctve.
And as regards to method, the improviser employs the oldest in music making.
Mankind's first musical performance could not have been anything other than a free
improvisation. - Derek Baey (Gutarst). (c)
Deep at the heart of musc's nstnctve nature s mprovsaton, we fee musc n such
a way that we can often express ourseves usng t as a anguage n order to
demonstrate the way we fee. Much n the same way we woud begn a sentence
wthout knowng exacty how we're gong to compete t, sometmes the most
passonate, meanngfu and movng of performances come when they are mprovsed.
Musc's nstnctve nature s aso hghghted by the fact that peope never seem to
ose memory of, or response to t. Even when severey demented to the pont where
they've ost the abty to speak ther own anguage, peope seem to remember and
are ceary responsve to hearng musc, even producng famar meodes oray
themseves. Musc s used n severa ways as a medcne. Musc engages the motor
system and can even hep peope wth motor probems such as Parknson's dsease,
and aso stroke patents who, as mentoned, have troube wth anguage and speech.
Musc s aso often used to steady the breathng of premature babes and the heart-
rates of cardac patents, provng agan to be a too of ndspensabe mportance.
Perhaps the coseness of our reatonshp wth musc s down to the fact that t begns
at such a young age. We actuay begn to hear and react to musc 17 to 19 weeks
after beng conceved. Research shows that musc s audbe n the womb and that
unborn chdren react to musc they can hear from ther mother's surroundngs, often
becomng exctabe and kckng, and aso appearng to sme at tmes.
After brth, growng babes are aso shown to react to musc n ways whch are very
smar to those of aduts, and experments have shown that babes w st for
sgnfcanty onger perods of tme stenng aone to consonant musc than they w
stenng to that whch s consdered dssonant, a sure sgn that our reatonshp wth
sound must, to an extent, be an nstnct, or perhaps even then the steners n
queston had aready begun to take nfuence from ther peers. Both babes and young
chdren aso cry n very musca ntervas, for exampe, t s not thought to be a
concdence that the stereotypca teasng Na-nah na-na-nah cry, often heard n the
payground, s actuay a mnor-thrd; and ths sn't the ony pace musc s used a
soca too.
It has been suggested that musc has heped us to evove n to what we are today.
Athough he aso camed that human musca abty:
"Must be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which man is endowed, as
neither the enoyment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are faculties of
the least use to man in reference to his daily habits of life. (d)
. a statement wth whch, on some grounds, many peope today woud surey
dsagree,
Darwn camed that musca abty s a factor whch made the mae more attractve to
the femae, as t s a cear demonstraton of both cogntve and physca fexbty.
As s st the same n many anmas, especay brds, Darwn's cams are that femaes
woud seect maes wth whom to breed based upon ther musca demonstratons.
Therefore, t s hghy key that a sgnfcant chunk of our evoutonary features have
come about as a resut of musca dfferences between our ancestors, wth the peope
of today takng after the more muscay ft aong wth those stronger n other areas.
Ths s another exampe of how musc s somethng whch ves wthn us.
It coud be argued aso that today musc s, n many ways, a foundaton of our socety.
The bran s proven to be more actve n areas of emotona reacton when payng
musc as part of a duet or team than when payng aone. Both stenng to and payng
musc wth others can prove to be a very rewardng experence, often both fun and
educatona, and defntey heps us to form and strengthen bonds wth our feow
peers.
Sound, especay when organsed n a partcuar way, can have musca quates,
dfferences n tmbre, ptch, rhythm, tempo, meody, harmony, but these are effectve
n that they create certan reactons n our brans. They stmuate our magnaton and
many emotons and t coud be argue that we use musc very much ke a drug at
tmes, n order to change our menta state to our own advantage.
For exampe, f we are not feeng n the best of moods, our favourte musc w often
cheer us up, Afrcan-Amercan saves woud sng the bues whst workng to keep
sprts hgh. Another exampe s f we wsh to seep, we may sten to a certan type of
musc, such as a chd stenng to a uaby. If our am s to fee more vey or
energetc, for exampe n preparaton for a sportng performance, we may sten to
some upbeat musc wth a fast tempo and possby some nspratona yrcs.
Furthermore, as we as usng musc n such a way, t s not unusua for peope sten to
use musc to enhance a drug-takng experence. It seems as our senses are
heghtened, our connecton wth musc s one of the thngs that presents tsef vvdy.
Perhaps ths s due to the strength of the bond we aready have wth t.
!ohn "age# $hen % hear what we call 'music', it feels as though someone is talking
about his feelings, or about his ideas. &ut when % hear traffic, % don't have the
feeling that anyone is talking, % have the feeling that sound is acting, and % love the
activity of sound. (b)
Musc s a connecton between sound and a human beng/vng thng, a sound has
the potenta to be musc, but s not musc uness t provokes a reacton n the
emotons of someone or somethng, and therefore t coud be descrbed as a feeng n
tsef, whch exsts wthn us. For exampe, smar to what |ohn Cage says, when we
wak down the street on a day bass, we hear many sounds; peope shoutng, car
engnes roarng, brds tweetng, ran fang. Some of these sounds we probaby don't
even notce, maybe because we've heard them so many tmes and have become
accustomed to gnorng them. Some of the sounds we hear, but, t coud be argued,
don't fnd nterestng enough to have any sort of a connecton wth.
We coud say that the other sounds are musc; these are the sounds we hear and have
a menta or emotona reacton to, whether ths reacton be happy, sad, nostagc or a
mxture of severa emotons. Ths feeng we have, and the affnty we seem to have
wth t, s one whch presents tsef wherever we go, whatever we do. There are very
few negatve nfuences musc has on our ves, and on the other hand, there seems to
be countess postve ones; communcaton, bondng, reaxaton, other menta effects
and even heang can be acheved through musc. If we open our ears to t, we can fee
musc anywhere and everywhere, and t affects us so much because t refects, and s
refected n amost everythng n our ves.
By Luke Owen.
Word Count: 2025
Bibliography
Reference a): The Musc Instnct: Scence & Song. 2009. Documentary. MANNES,
ELENA.
Reference b): YOUTUBE.COM. 2011. !ohn "age about 'ilence. |WWW|.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcHnL7aS64Y (|ohn Cage taks about sence).
(05/01/12).
Reference c): ARTDRUM.COM. 2011. Musical (uotes and )roverbs on %mprovisation.
|WWW|. http://www.artdrum.com/MUSICAL_OUOTES_IMPROV.HTM. (09/01/12).
Reference d): W. TECUMSEH FITCH SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF ST.
ANDREWS. 2011. *arwin +,, -anguage .volution |WWW|. http://darwn.st-
andrews.ac.uk/documents/ftch.pdf. (08/01/12).
The references n my essay are ettered accordng wth the etter wth whch they are
abeed n my Bbography. For exampe, where there s an (d) n my essay, I have
referenced Reference d) from my Bbography.