I READ about a school, located in England, the headmaster of which was the greatest athlete: Charles Fry — a cricketer, a soccer player, a rugby footballer, a champion sprinter on the track, the holder of the world record for the long jump for many years. The school was in the ship given to him by Winston Churchill, the stork. The education Fry provided there was all based on music and gymnastics as was that of the ancient Greeks. So wonderful were his results that in World War II, although the school was founded to train officers for merchant navy, among his old boys were seven admirals in the Royal Navy. After a detailed case study of Fry’s school, the inference can be drawn that music forms character.
Perhaps, since the first melodic birdsong was recognized by the human ear for its beautiful sound, music has been perceived to hold a special property of subtle mystical influence. Without a doubt, the auditory stimulation called music influences our physical and emotional states.
There are four fundamental ideas which music can express: National Feeling — patriotism, occupations of people, folk- dances; Poetic Thought — religion, love, happiness, tranquillity, etc; Programme Music — imitation in music, grief, humour, etc; Formal Construction — march, dance forms, sonata, etc.
These ideas have been used in music since prehistoric times to produce ecstasy and enthusiasm, to incite aggression for battle, to soothe or express feelings, to help communication, to effect healing, and so on. But music can equally pacify or sedate: just think of a lullaby to help send a crying baby off to sleep.
The earliest humans about whom we have any knowledge believed that music could exorcise evil spirits and heal wounds. Aristotle held the notion that flute music offered a cathartic release of emotions. Plato indicated that music restored the harmony and contentment in one’s soul as well as the moral welfare of the nation at large.
The Ikhwan al Safa (Rasa’ 11 Cairo, 1882) point out music’s emotional influence in: rejoicing, as in celebrating nuptials, feasts, banquets, and the like in grief and adversity, as in the mourning songs. The Ikhwan state that it is utilized in hospitals, in alleviating the pains of the sick and afflicted, and even in curing certain ailments.
Labourers and craftsmen had their own songs, which helped to break monotony and to while away time. Even animals were susceptible to its influence, hence the camel driver’s song. In war music was supposed to stimulate courage.
Al Ghazali classifies all vocal music into seven categories, and thus provides another account of the social function of music. According to him, songs were either pilgrim’s songs and war songs stimulating the faithful to holy warfare, or rajaz verses, lamentations, songs of joy, love songs and songs expressive of religious ecstasy (Ihya al din. Bulaq, 1891). This classification was undertaken with one objective in mind: the discussion on the lawfulness of such songs from the religious point of view.
Yet, the significance of non-Western music was not properly recognized in the West until Debussy listened to a Japanese gamelan orchestra at the Paris Exposition of 1889. The sounds he heard affected his own music, which in turn influenced younger composers.
Contemporary composers have not waited for the unfamiliar to arrive in the West but have travelled to find it. Messiaen’s pupils Boulez and Stockausen made extensive trips to Indonesia and Japan; Benjamin Britten also went to Bali. David Fanshawe has spent time in Africa and Tonga. Philip Glass studied with the Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar, while Steve Reich visited Ghana to study African drumming.
This is a time of exciting cross-fertilization between cultures. Zubin Mehta, born in India, served the New York philharmonic as conductor, and a Japanese conductor, Seiji Ozawa, was music director in Boston. The compositions of Mehdi Hasan, Ghulam Ali and the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan arouse great enthusiasm in India. Music is moving, perhaps, towards a symbol of brotherhood, unity, and peace throughout the globe.
Music is energy made audible through soundwaves. These waves are measured in vibrations (oscillations) per second. A sound above 120 decibels is known to cause damage to neural tissue in the ear.
One of several definitions of music describes it as the art of expressing thought in tone. In order that music may convey the thought which has inspired the composer, it is necessary that the listener has some foundation for appreciation; whether in his training, experience, or native endowment. The way in which music is considered by the listener is the basis for musical appreciation.
It is the listener and not the composer or performer alone, who creates the melody. In response to successive tones that strike upon his ear, the listener binds them together. If these tones are unrelated — incapable of stimulating a common motor response — they are apprehended as discrete, unmelodic. If, however, each tone initiates a response, which is in effect a continuation of an act of adjustment already partially accomplished, it takes its place in a truly melodic series. And if the final tone is an end-tone, a tonic — if the response it provokes is the completion of the act for which the preceding adjustments have been a preparation — then the sounds are indeed perceived to form a unity, a melody.
Which emotional qualities are most frequently aroused by music? Is music effective in arousing all kinds of feelings? Research has found that joy, sadness, love, longing and calm are frequently elicited by music, although feelings like anger, fear, jealousy, and envy are not.
Anger, for example, is one of the most instinctive tendencies which genetically functions early in life. However, the nature of music is such that there are certain limitations to the sort of effect that may result from it. It is difficult to conceive of a person becoming angry from the hearing of music. The music alone would never make one really angry.
As a matter of fact, a musical selection may give joy to one person, sadness to another, and at the same time, by means of the words or some characteristics of the music, arouse a feeling of longing.
References to mother, home, sweetheart, children, or native land have an intimate personal meaning for each listener, and arouse correspondingly intimate emotional feeling.
The effects of major and minor chords, tempo, pitch, rhythm, harmony and melody on human behaviour have been studied. The fast tempo seems to be the most powerful element in creating excitement. The expressiveness of music seems to be due less to melodies than to rhythm and tempo. Tonal and rhythmic patterns affect coordination, equilibrium, bodily rhythm, and creative or aesthetic response as well as different moods.
Music is also credited with extending the attention span, reducing stress, facilitating self-expression, stimulating associations and imagery, and helping the process of memorizing.
In the words of music scholar Randall McClellan (1988) “music is a dynamic multi-layered matrix of constantly shifting tonal relationships unfolding within time”. It is this dynamic matrix that includes a profound sense of relaxation.
There are several schools of thought about the relationship between music and relaxation, developed by both the hard and soft sciences. Each can make a contribution to the understanding of music’s role in the relaxation response.
According to Biochemical Theory, music appears to affect human physiology directly, through the cerebral cortex and autonomic nervous system. Through the ear’s complicated structure, the brain via special nervous tissue of the ear (organ of corti, hair cells), where vibrations are converted to electrical nerve impulses, receives sound stimuli.
In a complex network of neurons, these impulses are thought to be first decoded by the cerebral cortex, then deciphered by the sub-cortex, and subsequently directed from the limbic system potentially throughout the entire body.
Although yet unproven, it has been speculated by some that music may release endorphins from the brain, which create a sensation of euphoria or inspirational high. Another neurotransmitter, melanin, has been researched to determine its effects as an electrical semiconductor.
Entrainment theory suggests that the human energy field receives oscillations produced by music and various psychological systems entrain with or match the hertz (oscillation) of the music.
Entrainment theory gained support from a series of studies conducted in the 1970s on the effects of music on the growth of plants, organisms with no known nervous system.
Dr Dorothy Retallack (1973), for example, conducted a study examining leaf growth and water absorption when corn, squash, petunias, zinnias and marigolds were exposed to music. She found that some types of music induced a ‘fertilizing effect’, promoting plant growth. She discovered that in the presence of classical music (Bach) and Indian sitar music (Ravi Shankar), plants grew in the direction of speakers (sometimes even around the speakers), showing a preference for these styles of music. When subjected to loud rock and roll or acid rock, though, they grew away from the speakers. In fact, many of these plants became dehydrated and some even died. Thus, entrainment theory concludes that relaxing music can have a calming effect.
The least scientific but perhaps the most intuitively true is metaphysical theory which suggests that music has a divine quality. Music is a gift from God, or so Orpheus thought. Greek, legend has it that Orpheus was given a lyre by Apollo (the god of music) to offer songs of praise. Although Apollo bequeathed this gift, it was the muses who taught Orpheus to play, hence the word Music.
In modern world, music therapy is used in all of its forms to modify nonmusical behaviour and to promote mental health, social development and adjustment. In music therapy, patients may be listening or performing. Severely disturbed individuals benefit from it. Yet, the most frequent use of music therapy is with retarded and physically handicapped children.
And if you have ever heard anyone whistling in the face of fear, remember that this, too, is effective at calming the body.
