Music in Mind
Sections within this article:
1. Soulful Melodies, Biological Rhythms
Compared to hunting, gathering and building shelter, or its modern equivalent (money-making), art seems to be superfluous. But if art is truly unnecessary, irrelevant and trivial, why has art been created within every culture ever known?
‘Things are the way they are for a reason.’ Since the Renaissance, scientists have drawn society toward this same conclusion, first posited millenia ago by pagans and then theologians, albeit from alternative assumptions and along very different paths. Whereas earlier ‘theorists’ tended to externalize the causes of a person’s conduct (i.e., ‘The devil – or some mischievious goddess – made him do it’), modern researchers have succeeded in demonstrating an array of internal mechanisms (e.g., anatomical, biochemical, psychological, etc.) underlying human actions. For the educated and the curious it is never appropriate to dismiss any human behavior as meaningless. Thus, whenever we observe a consistent pattern of behavior across humanity we are obliged to ask, “What causes this behavior? What is its purpose and what is its mechanism? To what is it related and what is its effect?”
When our scientific models fall short, the easily discouraged revert to facile vaguaries or religious dogmas. It’s not necessarily wrong to build explanations on abstractions such as the ‘mind’, ‘spirit’, ‘soul’, or metaphorical ‘heart’, but we should not leave it at that. Thankfully, the daring explorers of terra incognita push on, thrilling in the adventurous risk of discovery, confident that the journey will continue to yield treasures, rich understandings providing intellectual capital for future generations. On the horizon, a less Cartesian, more intuitive truth is rising: The arts change our world; they widen and deepen our perspective, enhance our gifts for creativity, abstract reasoning, pattern recognition and metaphorical symbolism, all human specialties which separate us dramatically from the rest of the animal kingdom. Albert Einstein asserted, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Ultimately, the arts help us bridge the chasms, the inherent limitations, of language and rationality connecting us with our intuitive mind: To ‘say’ in a melody, in a tapestry, in a colorful brush stroke, a pirouette, a sculpture, a dramatic gesture, or even a crafted cryptic verse, what our colloquial conversations never can; to communicate empathetic love, sorrow, wonder, delight; to ‘speak’ directly to emotions without the psychological baggage of conscious analysis. History and modern research both clearly demonstrates that the arts make us better thinkers and drive us toward finer notions of what we, individually and collectively, can be. It is no accident that Da Vinci, a visionary artist who was also a scientist and philosopher, helped the world move beyond the self-serving dogmas of Middle Ages rulers, and is thus often cited as the epitome of a Renaissance man. Then, as now and as always, the arts lead the way toward change in our world. Perhaps, then, it is also no accident that modern industrial rulers choose to severely underfund the arts.
Soulful Melodies, Biological Rhythms
To understand the power of the arts, and glimpse their deep connections within us, we need only to consider Music and Mind.
Music is perhaps the most ancient form of art (and communication) since even birds use song (and its closely related kinesthetic form, dance) in important social rituals. Humans combine timbre, melody, and harmony in purposeful rhythms designed to evoke emotion, often causing unconscious physical actions, such as foot tapping and head nodding. Nearly everyone has a favorite style: classical, jazz, electronic, folk, rock, country, rap, ethnic, or a blending of various genres into something biz school grads might call “cro$$-over pop”. Nearly all of our special occassions include music (e.g., war and funeral marches, wedding and birthday themes, pageants and ceremonies, etc.) Music is the unifying core of the most powerful art form ever created: audio-visual multimedia. The combination of words (often lyrics or poetry), moving images, and integrated music is compelling, captivating and psychologically effective in predictable ways, a fact exploited daily by Madison Avenue’s wizards of advertising.
Like all forms of art, how music works its magic on our psyche is still largely unexplained. Yet music itself is composed of provocative patterns, and the human mind is built to interpret patterns, suggesting an intimate link at the outset. While the permutations of rhythm, melody and harmony across an array of timbres are infinite, the human ear (and mind) seems drawn toward a relatively small set of possibilities, and specifically avoids many others. As musicologist Joseph Swain writes, “The psychological reality of musical syntax is demonstrated by our ability to identify wrong notes in music we have never heard before. Its value to the listener lies in establishing the tensions and resolutions that could never arise if the unfolding of the music were totally unpredictable — or totally predictable.” For instance, it is this innate sense of music, and its ‘inherent meaning’, which made viewers feel so uncomfortable when Stanley Kubric choose to juxtapose soothing classical music with savage actions on-screen in “A Clockwork Orange”, earning it a rare “X” rating for violence although hundreds of movies have portrayed more, and more graphic, brutality. Certainly there are some learned (habitually associated) responses to music, but many studies have shown incredible consistencies from culture to culture, so this is an excellent place to begin our exploration.
The Western tonal scale interval known as a “perfect fifth” is described as “happy” by Greeks, Persians, Orientals, Latins and Germanics alike. Symphonies composed 400 years ago, and folk tunes even older, continue to be understood, enjoyed and similarly described by modern audiences. Intriguingly, there are definite mathematical and biological patterns behind music’s emotive powers. For example, tunings which yield a “perfect fifth”, are not arbitrary: The “octave” (eighth note) within the Western scale is EXACTLY twice the actual vibrational frequency of the “root” (first) tone of the scale, and the “fifth” is a frequency EXACTLY half way between the root and its octave. Although these scales were first developed (and tuned) ‘by ear’, long before the vibrational frequencies could be measured, in retrospect there is a clear reason we chose the tones we did: Harmonic interference patterns, also known as overtones. Like all waves, sound waves interfere with each other in both constructive and destructive fashion depending on their relative frequencies. In short, those notes (frequencies) which reinforce each other constructively sound harmonious and pleasant to our audio senses, while all other intervals are destructive to various degrees which our hearing interprets as unpleasant. In fact, all of the intervals of the original pentatonic scale (think Gregorian Chant) are mathematically constructive, while film scoring experts use highly destructive intervals (a “minor second”, or even “detuned” quarter-tones) to make you squirm nervously just before an unsuspecting woman encounters a madman. That a song’s emotion can be contrived by businessmen does not lessen the mysterious power of empathy evoked by soulful and heartfelt melodies spontaneously issued from the hands and throats of anyone with ‘the blues’. Apparenty, our auditory processors have been doing the equations long before we possessed the conscious mathematics, allowing sympathetic melodies and harmonies to soothe our soul while instinctively cautioning us against discord.
Rhythm is the canvas across which harmony and melody are realized. A melody is a series of notes which unfold over time, while a harmony is a set of notes played simultaneously. Rather than pitch intervals, percussive instruments emphasize temporal intervals (rhythms) designed to ‘drive’ or ‘accent’ music, often providing a ‘back beat’ against which melodies and harmonies are measured. Most people have the innate ability to ‘keep a beat’, while nearly everyone can synchronize to a beat (i.e., when dancing). While other animals exhibit purposeful dance or song, simultaneous rhythmical coordination among members appears to be uniquely human, and the tempo of various rhythms is correlated with listeners’ emotional responses in fairly intuitive ways. When you want to go to sleep do put on fast or slow music? What tempo do you choose when you want to enliven a party? When you want to motivate workers? When you want to think? Since even our common language demonstrates this innate knowledge (i.e., happy people are said to be ‘upbeat’), the chances are excellent that you can easily select a tempo for each of the above activities, and that most other people will select similar tempos. So, how does rhythm cause these predictable responses? One possibility is that the external rhythms of music interact with our biological rhythms. For example, we know the brain has several different rhythms (‘brain waves’) which pulse consistently under normal circumstances: Delta waves (0.5 to 4 Hz) are associated with deep sleep, Theta waves (4 to 7 Hz) relate to light sleep, Alpha waves (8 to 13 Hz) occur in states of calm relaxation, Beta waves (13 to 30 Hz) correspond to being awake and active, while Gamma waves (30 – 50 hz) have been correlated with various mystical experiences. Of course, the brain also controls our heart rate (0.5 – 3.5 Hz) and our breathing rate (0.1 – 1.0 Hz). While our ears process sound frequencies (notes) from 20 to 20,000 Hertz (‘Hz’ = cycles per second), musical tempos generally range from 30 – 200 beats per minute (= .5 to 3.5 Hz); Brain wave frequencies are therefore more closely related to musical tempo than pitch. Our internal rhythmic patterns can all be thought of as timing mechanisms similar to the synchronization clock at the heart of all computer systems. These internal rhythms contribute to our sense that time is passing, give us the ability to measure time intuitively, and help us synchronize with external events. Research across various disciplines has demonstrated that even low level biological functions (i.e., menstrual cycles, breathing, heart rate, and brain waves themselves) can be synchronized (‘entrained’) by external stimuli. Perhaps, through music, we have discovered a means of going beyond language to directly reinforce or modify our natural brain rhythms and therefore our state of consciousness.
Melodies evoking empathy within our souls and rhythms affecting the biology of our mind, a means of communication which can circumvent our psychological defenses, perhaps lifting us across chasms of understanding to places of empathy and intuition otherwise unaccessible via spoken and written languages.
Tangible Movements?
Classical composers often crafted significant works based on historical events, consciously attempting, for example, to give their audiences (generally nobility and their attendant courtiers) a sense of the emotions felt by troops approaching battle, during engagement, after a glorious victory or demoralizing defeat, and in reflection upon return home. Individual instruments may be used within each segment to represent storyline specifics, such as the action of a hero or the firing of a cannon. Groups of instruments may exchange volleys, one subset perhaps flanking an unsuspecting other, and so forth. To lay ears, the layered complexities dissolve into the blur of a brisk battle where individual contributions are meaningless outside the context of the collective, the combined outcome is all that matters. The separate segments of the musical story, each called a ‘movement’, are connected through variations on melodic themes which occur throughout. The memorably unifying melodies transcend the nuances of work, remaining lodged in the back of our mind, waiting to be unconsciously hummed some afternoon when an analogous emotion strikes us.
Our language often provides clues to subtle connections lost through time and inattention. Is it a coincidence that we use the term “movement” to describe one section of a larger musical work while applying the same word to physical movements, political movements, social movements, and even events which are said to be emotionally moving? What is the connection?
At the most basic level, a movement is that which takes us from one time, place or event to another. Thus, the physical movement of a determined walk might lead us to a determined push for a political movement, such as military withdrawal from all foreign lands, so we sing “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” as the unifying theme for our social movement toward becoming a more peaceful nation, and all those who bear witness to the empowerment of the masses are moved by the experience.
The emotional potency of music and other forms of art is not lost on those who control and profit from our current political and social structures. They understand the tangible effect the arts can have as vehicles for propaganda. Thus the same military which gave us “Rosie The Riveter” icons and “Over There” theme songs for World War II, never says “no” to producers of movies such as “Top Gun” which serve as fantastic (and free) recruitment tools. They also remember the tangible impact of protest songs which rallied young people in the 1960s, thus advancing the Civil Rights movement, ending the Vietnam debacle, and exploding the Watergate scandal in spite of private and governmental ambitions to the contrary. Understanding this line of thinking explains official reactions to rap and hip-hop music, specifically broad attempts to censor artists and their songs. To those in power, the First Amendment (within the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights) is properly used to justify the right of individuals and corporations to blatantly corrupt our democracy through ‘campaign contributions’, but can not shield artists from censorship when their art criticizes or otherwise offends those in power. Apparently, the last thing the leaders of capitalism’s ‘free markets’ want is competition, especially from those historically independent and free-thinking visionaries the world calls artists.
If there is to be a peaceful revolution, where enlightened and concerned citizens reclaim our democracy from greedy, soulless corporations, it will begin with artists expressing their visions for a more progressive and sustainable society through myriad (and largely intangible) forms of art. Tangible movement toward “a more perfect union”, humanity’s next transcendent step in our collective evolution, will not come about via an oversimplified rallying cry, but will follow only when common people feel a common urge — for reasons which they can not necessarily articulate, but which they nevertheless know to be right and true. One day, such a unifying melody will rise spontaneously from the lips of the masses, if we do not destroy our planet and ourselves first. The question is not ‘if’ such a revolution will occur, but only ‘when’: This is the theme which keeps the elite and their loyal servants awake at night.
“Dangerous” Abstractions
The arts are frightening to the elite precisely because the arts inherently carry and sow the seeds of humanitarian revolution. Independent minds do not want or need external controls, thus the ruling class sees artists as the enemy. Speaking frankly, artists, free thinkers, creative individuals of all persuasions, do not make reliable or obedient servants. They are the elite’s worst nightmare. So, through an array of mechanisms from co-opting patronage to overt political and economic attack, artists are discouraged and marginalized, but rarely eliminated altogether.
People in power rarely get there because they are foolish. They are shrewd enough to understand that artists are the intellectual Atlas of humanity, and thus they also fear a world where Atlas shrugs. Artists are therefore collectively seen as a stable of necessary creative talent, some percentage of which must be broken, harnessed and pressed into dedicated service on behalf of the elite. The rest can be alienated, neglected and, above all, separated from meaningful public dialogue. Artistic messages which fit within the ruling paradigm as celebrated, popularized, sloganized. Artistic indictments and warnings contrary to the official agenda are ignored where possible, demonized where necessary.
Taxpayer monies and tax breaks given to for-profit corporations (which openly admit their focus on self-interest) are called ‘incentives’. When directed toward individuals or public service organizations these are labeled pejoratively as ‘subsidies’, ‘welfare’, ‘entitlements’, or ‘hand outs’. The distinction (actually, lack thereof) is not lost on free-thinkers and independent minds. In ‘a more perfect union’, the arts would be accorded the esteem and budgetary priority they deserve. After all, the path to a peaceful, secure, sustainable, balanced and egalitarian world is through the encouragement of creativity, empathy, understanding and individual productivity in cooperation with the goals of society as a whole, not selfishness and domination empowered through military technologies. Recalled the quote by the modern genius Albert Einstein, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Of course, teaching, or even encouraging, the arts is a dangerous proposition for the elite. Whereas basic proficiencies in “readin’, ‘ritin’ and ‘rithmetic” are clearly necessary within a dutiful servant class, the arts are another matter altogether. There is convincing evidence that arts education leads to significantly better 3-R’s performance, but education in the arts also leads to enhancements in dubiously desireable qualities such as abstract reasoning, pattern recognition and critical analysis. From the point of view of the ‘haves’, it would be dangerous to educate a critical mass of intellectually independent ‘have nots’ with the ability to apply abstract reasoning to the patterns of inequity upon which our economic system is based. But from our point of view as commoners, we should immediately begin to emphasize the arts throughout our educational systems.
Renaissance Dancing
The collective interests of those who profit from ‘The Market’ pay handsome rewards to accomodating voices but, in any society, who or what supports voices of dissent, or even long range vision? How many Da Vinci’s and Galileo’s are being ignored today? What will spark the new Renaissance (Re-Enlightenment, if you will) necessary to permit humanity’s transcendence from this unsustainable plateau of cultures steeped in myopic neo-industrialism to a higher plane of existence, creating rational social systems to equitably meet human needs within our world’s resource limitations, and replacing the dogma of authority with the empowerment of personal spirituality?
The cosmic dance, from energy quanta to ecological webs to the gravitional effect of dark matter, is a fractal construct. Like the interrelationships between yin and yang, or electricity and magnetism, or melody and rhythm, human progress is the result of a complex dance between its various inseparable constituents. It should not, indeed to be healthy it cannot, be lopsided. Thus, in the words of a ballroom master pressing against the timid body of his new partner, enlightened leaders must admonish a complacent public: “Resist! Resist! How do you expect me to lead if you do not resist?”
As history has repeatedly demonstrated, achieving transcendence (perhaps we should spell it “transcendance“) will require us to embrace a new paradigm which, we expect, would be a system and philosophy based not on domination, deceit, manipulation and ‘invisible hands’, but instead upon a transparent and decentralized structure relying on creativity, cooperation and, above all, equitable returns for all tangible hands. Liberty & Responsibility is such a philosophy, as well as a consistent system of civil organization, balancing the motivations of Individual Liberty through the self-regulating mechanisms required by Personal Responsibility.
What, then, would we do differently if operating within a framework of Liberty & Responsibility?
Make Art Primary in Education!
The human mind is naturally inquisitive and creative, seeking out patterns, solving problems and constructing meaning using whatever it has at its disposal. Education can be re-structured to emphasize creative thinking and problem solving from the outset and within every discipline, integrating arts and abstract thinking processes with basic skills in language and sciences. Ultimately it is better to teach a man to fish than to give a man a fish, so displacing rote repetition in favor of creative projects which require the same pieces of knowledge should be both more interesting and more effective. Moreover, this is how problems really come to us in the world.
Promote Independent Thought and Broadened Perspectives.
If it is appropriate for government to run “public service ads” which (falsely) claim that people who buy street drugs are funding terrorism, then certainly it is appropriate to fund and promote ads and programs which challenge conventional dogmas, encourage independent thinking, and teach citizens to skeptically and critically interpret news, advertisements, economic reports and governmental policies. There is nothing better for democracy than a well-informed and actively thinking electorate! In addition, we should offer higher education at no charge for those citizens who choose to give 2 or 4 years of public service (including military service) at anytime between age 16 and 22. If each one-year assignment is allocated randomly outside their home area, each participant would learn not only the value of public service (while fulfilling crucial social needs such as care for the elderly or running a women’s shelter), but they would also develop an understanding of other sub-cultures and economies within the U.S. Giving young people a chance to experience unexpected and diverse perspectives, while gaining maturity and performing real work for real wages, will also help them focus on their goals and motiviations when they do go on to higher education.
Support and Publicize Research Relating to Art and Mental Development.
We need more studies and more publicity for findings related to the arts and their tangible effects on our minds and our societies. For instance, did you know that recent studies have shown: (1) For the unborn child, classical music, played at a rhythm of 60 beats per minute, (equivalent to that of a resting human heart) provides an environment conducive to creative and intellectual development?; (2) Pre-schoolers who studied various forms of music performed 34% better in spatial and temporal reasoning ability than preschoolers who spent the same amount of time learning to use computers, scored 80% higher on object-assembly tests than students who did not have the music lessons, and demonstrated a 46% boost in their spatial reasoning IQ?; (3) Elementary school students given a sequential, skill-building music program showed a marked improvement in math skills?; (4) Students who study music scored higher on both the verbal and math portions of the SAT than non-music students?; (5) Listening to Mozart was found to significantly increase spatial scores of college students on IQ tests?; (6) 66% of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted (the highest percentage of any group)?; (7) Listening to Baroque music while studying can enhance one’s ability to memorize spellings, poetry, and foreign words?; (8) The very best engineers and technical designers in Silicon Valley industry are, nearly without exception, practicing musicians?; (9) Business skills are enhanced by music, accuracy in adult language editing tasks increased by 21.3% while listening to classical music, AT&T and DuPont have cut training time in half by using creative music programs, Equitable Life Insurance increased the output of transcribers by 17% after introducing music to the office, and Mississippi Power & Light raised efficiency in the billing department by 18.6% after instituting a nine-month in-office music listening program?; (10) Listening to music can increase levels of interleukin-1 (IL-1) in the blood from 12.5 to 14% (Interleukins are a family of proteins associated with blood and platelet production, lymphocyte stimulation and cellular protection against AIDS, cancer and other diseases)? Why aren’t THESE research findings the recurring subjects of nightly news programs or government broadcasts?
Provide Non-Market Incentives for Creativity.
Why should society ONLY value ideas and projects intended to make money? What about products or art forms which demonstrate, question, challenge or simply illuminate? How can these contributions be fairly valued and supported? Perhaps the simplest mechanism is to allow the general public to (1) vote directly on a percentage of their taxation which shall be allocated to public service and the arts, and (2) democratically form selection committees within each discipline to manage the allocated funds (if any) with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency where possible. In this way, art forms which the public finds to be of some marginal value can be seeded or incentivized, forms which prove popular can become self-sufficient, and there will still be room for total failure.
Develop and Participate in Your Own Art Forms!
It is never too late begin to study and create art. Painting, poetry, dance, music, sculture, textiles, video, photography, the list goes on and on. While art’s the most dramatic enhancements to mental ability occur when we are youngest, studies also show that art increase brain power are any age, especially if you actively participate in the creative process. Once you begin, you will be amazed at how much you have to ‘say’, and the volumes your works ‘speak’.
Patronize the Arts in Your Community
Contemplating the works of other artists is the first step toward opening your mind. How does the art make you feel? What is being communicated? What patterns are emerging? How do you interpret these elements? What do you like and dislike? Why? Could you imagine creating such a work? What skills were involved in such a creation? What inspirations might be involved? How does this relate to life and the human condition? From art galleries to plays, concerts to movies, ballets to poetry readings, all but the tiniest communities offer an array of arts. Now, with the web (and site like Alter-Nation.com) the arts can even be imported to remote corner of the globe. Patronizing the arts (specifically, buying works or donating money) is the simplest and most tangible action you can take to keep creativity alive in our world.
Learn to Think Outside The Box
Developing an open and independent mind is possible for nearly everyone… but it takes discipline. Begin by questioning everything. How do you know what you claim to know? How does the newscaster know what happened or why? What motivations might the columnist have for writing whatever she writes? Why should you trust this investment analyst? Then, repeatedly challenge your own world view until it is logical, consistent and clear (e.g.. “The Earth came into existence through…, the history of mankind is…, science understands this and that but does not know…, my spiritual beliefs are based on this while others believe…, my political beliefs are such as opposed to people who believe this other way…, etc.”). Look for patterns in the world which do NOT easily fit within your world view and attempt to explain those patterns in a parsimonious and consistent manner. Stretch your mind: Explore the nature of gravity, the concepts of mind and memory, sleep, or some other mystery unsolved by modern science, and try to develop your own intuitive hypotheses about what is going on: Then go out on the web and see what others have found. Allow your mind to think “inappropriate” thoughts whenever it wants to, but always analyze those thoughts later to (1) understand why your mind might have gone that way, and (2) why your believed the thought was “inappropriate” in the first place. Take every opportunity to play and invent games.
Dance With Friends and Loved Ones
Do not forget to include your body in the arts. Dancing to music, especially in the company of people your trust and enjoy, is healthy for your body, mind and soul. Empty your censoring conscience, feel the groove, let it move your body unconsciously, and allow yourself to be transported to that place where small children dwell. Your spontaneous smile is free of charge.
Summary & Conclusions
There is a large body of evidence which suggests that the arts are not superfluous, but are, indeed, at humanity’s core. The arts can save our humanity. Given the inherent limitations of language, our species has continued to rely on powerful non-verbal patterns ranging from visual metaphors which evoke psychological archetypes to acoustic rhythms and intervals which provoke biological responses.
The fact that art can bypass linguistic defenses and tap directly into our emotions is not lost upon the elite, who simultaneously covet and fear the creativity of artists. Thus, they tend to structure education around industrial skills and socialization rather than critical analysis, problem solving and abstract thought. Their hope is securely to harness creativity while marginalizing independent thinkers.
Our hope is to promote the arts as a catalyst for cultural progress and personal transcendence. Within the paradigm of Liberty & Responsibility, a nation (or planet) full of creative and independent thinkers is a blessing, NOT a curse. We can help bring about positive social change, in fact a new Renaissance, by actively supporting and participating in a diverse array of arts, and by personally practicing critical and independent thinking. In the dance of human progress, the more we resist, the better we will lead.
Thank you for your attention, interest and concern.
“Civilized… Why can’t we be responsible?”