Why are we drawn to Music?

There has to be a reason or reasons for music’s magnetism. Why are we held spellbound by it? This two-part post reflects the results of personal academic research.

Music permeates the heart and mind of the human through the conglomeration of rhythmic patterns, sparkly melodies and impeccable harmonies forming a resonance that is moulded by its environment.

“It perhaps uniquely captures and conveys the interior landscape of one human mind to another, holding our tears and sweat, pain and pleasure, packaged as paeans and preludes and etudes and nocturnes. It is the texturization of the deliquescence of time, the ebb and flow of mood and meaning. It ruminates, vacillates, contemplates and stimulates. In music, we organize and fantasise….Music soothes the soul and the savage beast…” (Jason Martineau, 2010: 242).

The above assertion reflects music’s vitality in society within both the individual and public space. It is a form of interpersonal communication which often mirrors a similitude in emotional thought. It is also a conduit for the vocalization of hopes and expectations. Music very often absorbs the sum totality of events which mark our daily lives, and then mirrors it right back in our faces. This action engenders resonance, awareness and self-examination.

Through music, groups or movements are able to mobilize and sensitize. Even the vicious and merciless are enchanted by its charm. Jayson Greene tells the surrealistic story of certain German guards in the early 19th century who amicably shared the same space with their captives on a cold winter, as both groups got entangled in the alluring web of music (2021: n.page).

The allure of music is not limited to the human ecosystem, but permeates both the plants and animal kingdom as demonstrated by Joscelyn Godwin in his study of speculative music. He shows plants response to music in their tendency to lean “towards or away” from the sound source (10).

google.com

He references an experimentation conducted by Dorothy Retallack from 1968-1971 at the Temple Buell College in Colorado which yielded very controversial and contested results as it indicated that plants responded favourably to jazz, classical music and Indian sitar music, showed indifference towards country and western music, and found repulsive, sounds from steel drums and ‘hard rock’ pop music (10). Expectedly, due to the subjectivity in musical tastes, the result evoked emotional responses from the public and was labelled as “amateur pseudo-science” (11).

Similarly, he indicates that the ecosystem of sea creatures is permeated by sound, as shown through the dolphin and baleen whales affinity for music. Godwin argues that during the medieval periods, it was common knowledge that music had an effect on animals. It was used to bait the swordfish, enchant the stags, stop the swimming clatters of fish, lure swans and restrain elephants and cobras (14).

Writing on music’s undeniable impact on the human, he suggests that it is due to its linkage to the human spirit, an element described as “the scale of being that is neither body nor soul but in some way unites them” (16). This connection circulates music’s impact to the human body and soul, which has been shown to improve health and slow the aging process. Godwin argues further in his reference to Boethius, an ancient philosopher, that “Music is able to make this direct impression on the soul because ‘it is allied to us by nature’”. Referencing a similar theory by Schopenhauer, he notes that “music is the image and expression of the universal Will” (21), which deepens the similitude between human and music.

churchleaders.com

cupresents.org

In essence, metaphysically, we are music, and music is us. One would concur based on close observations within the church. Having been a chorister in the choir, one recollects that during church service on Sunday mornings, few members of the congregation arrived punctually. But five minutes prior to the commencement of the praise and worship session, out of the blues, the church pew was fully occupied. Members swarmed in like moths to a flame because of the collective desire to experience and enjoy the music. From this perspective, music can be seen as a core component of human existence which frames communication and influences societies. It is even courted by high society like royalties and politicians.

One of the most famous tales of music and royalty can be found in the Biblical account of King Saul and David. In 1 Samuel 16, we are told that the King came under the torment of an evil spirit and his servant recommended music therapy as a curative measure. During subsequent attacks, David played the lyre and the King regained sanity.

alamy.de

William Shakespeare definitely had this understanding when in Twelfth Night, he begins with the phrase, “If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the appetite may sicken, and so die”. In the play, the Duke of Illyria, Orsino is romantically entangled with the Countess Olivia, who at the period is planning a seven-year seclusion to mourn her deceased brother, and consequently would be unavailable to entertain Orsino’s sweet-nothings.

The lovelorn Duke saunters into a state of lamentation, akin to a teenager’s, and demands an excess of music to alleviate his emotional hurt, just like food would satiate hunger. The authenticity of Orsino’s love is here not the issue, but Shakespeare’s equation of music to food. He understood the satiating character of music which relieves physical pangs and evokes catharsis in the individual, specifically, and the society, in general.

During the age of Enlightenment, Louis XIV of France had a penchant for the arts, particularly dance and music. He viewed both as essential political tools. In Le Roi danse (The King dances), a historical and musical film, Louis XIV describes music as “un kern l’harmonie universelle” (transl, a kernel or seed of universal harmony).

Louis the Great’s view equally aligns with Godwin’s conclusion that “Music brings about in mankind the unity of purpose and of feeling, reflecting the perfect harmony of the heavens without which civilization cannot stand”. (32).

In ancient Greece and China, music was viewed as a fundamental expression of culture “with deep cosmological, metaphysical, religions, social and political implications” (Timothy Rice, 11).

Rice quotes Plato as stating in The Republic that “music affected ethical behaviour and therefore the political life of society”. In China, music was also perceived as salient to human life. Confucius quipped about music polarities in his observation that the Chinese ritualistic music engendered the cultivation of good attributes in the elite class and the society at large, while music for entertainment purposes proved adversarial (12).

The understanding of music’s perceived adversarial influence may not be far-fetched. The story is told of Mao-Tse-tung’s interference in China’s music tradition, when he suggested the standardization of traditional folk songs to mimic the West, a view held as abhorrent by many local pundits. The emerging music was named “yellow music”. It was characteristically decadent and sexually stimulating. In Godwin’s submission, “A country with a vast problem of overpopulation, whose official propaganda warns young married people that much lovemaking is bad for their health, could ill afford the overt sexuality of Western pop music” (33).

The above statement reflects music’s saliency in the regenerative process which would be discussed further in a subsequent blog post. Meanwhile, we can deduce that music is hugely significant due its overwhelming permeation of socio-cultural engagements like birth, marriage, death, religious services, rituals, recreation, etc.

Music has so far been recognized as a fundamental element to human existence in areas like social organization, cultural expression, therapeutic and emotional remedy, etc. But did you know that music further serves a psycho-social purpose and can be utilized as a tool for societal integration based on shared idiosyncrasies?

The second part of this post would elaborate on music’s mediatory function within socio-cultural exchange.

REFERENCES:

Godwin, Joscelyn. Harmonies of Heaven and Earth. Inner Traditions International, 1987.

Greene, Jayson. “What Can Music Do During Climate Collapse?” Pitchfork Magazine. April 22, 2021.

Martineau, Jason. “The Elements of Music”. Quadrivium, edited by Jason Martineau. Bloomsbury, 2010, pp 241-289.

Rice, Timothy. Ethnomusicology. Oxford, 2014.