XVIII - MUSIC

Music is everywhere. Every culture ever known has made music. Why? What about music gives it such universal appeal? Why do we all respond to music?

First, we shall examine what is music. Music is a series of sounds. The sequence of sounds is neither completely random nor completely ordered. Random notes played at random times on a piano do not elicit the response music gets, nor does the sound of the metronome. Music lives between order and chaos. It occupies a zone of partial uncertainty where it is semi-predictable. You may not know what the next note is going to be, but it usually falls within an expected range of pitch, volume, length, and tonal quality.

Music typically has a regularly repeating pattern of note timing and emphasis; most music is rhythmic, with a beat. There are usually repeated sequences of notes, repeated either exactly or with variations about a theme.

Music is used by itself, to support words (song lyrics), movement (dance), story enactment (as in movie music), as well as many aspects of daily life. Music is used widely because it has a strong and reliable effect on us.

It can stimulate any emotion we have. Music can make us get up and dance or it can loose a flood of memories. These semi-regular sequences of sounds have an amazing ability to manipulate our minds. But the question remains: Why?

Music As Story
Once again, the answer is story structure and the power of moral demonstration. The response to music is related to the response to the rhythm of a story, the question-answer dynamic of the hierarchy of obstacles and their resultant moral demonstrations.

The effect is heightened by the music having a repeating rhythmic pattern of beats. When the notes come at a regular time interval, we almost immediately get the beat and know when to expect the next note. The first few notes set up a moral demonstration about rhythm in the world of that music so that we assume the following notes will arrive on schedule. If the rhythm shifts, we understand that the music has entered a new phase where the moral package of the first part of the music no longer fully applies.

The moral of the musical rhythm is that the world of the music also moves to that beat. As we accept the music and the validity of its associated story structure while we are in its world, our bodily movements reflect the beat. Furthermore, the tempo and rhythmic pattern of bodily movement is different according to our emotions, so musical rhythm affects them, too.

Some music, such as drumming, may be purely rhythmic, but most music has a series of notes of varying pitch. The notes add interest and strengthen our response. They make the music more expressive.

The rhythm lets us know when the next note is due. What will the note be? What pitch, how loud, how long? The notes of the melody vary the most. There may be other note sequences played simultaneously that have less variation. What we have is a situation similar to the sequence of obstacles in a story. It is a series of questions and answers. Each note is an action yielding a moral demonstration, and its effect on us is different according to the different notes that precede, accompany, and follow it. There will also be groups of notes, musical phrases, that may be repeated, possibly with variations. These correspond to larger obstacles in the hierarchy. There is much repetition in music, the moral demonstrations are reconfirmed, yet also developed with the variations. Music that is not repetitive seems adventuresome. Music that is quite repetitive seems comforting and confirming of present reality. Repetitive music can induce hypnotic or other trancelike states leading to mythic shifts, altered states of consciousness. Music that is too repetitive is boring. The same can be said of repetition in stories.

The different musical instruments each make their own distinct sounds. They are like characters in a story, each speaking in its own voice. Like characters, each instrument has its own moral package, which comes out in the moral demonstrations of its music.

At this point you may be asking yourself what are the morals of some piece of music. The best answer to that question is to listen to the music and hear and feel your answer. Music is a good medium for the demonstration of nonverbal morals, statements about the nature of reality that cannot be stated in words but that may be very important nonetheless.

Lyrics and Dance
Songs with words add a flow of verbal information to the sequence of notes. The words and music support each other and give more varied story possibilities, as well as heighten the emotional impact of each other.

Music is also used to give rhythm and pattern to bodily movement to produce dancing. The movement combined with the music creates moral demonstrations the people involved need to express. Consider a room full of people waltzing.

The couples are all moving in similar steps, and the men lead and the women follow. This demonstrates a moral of group myth of people following established convention and women following the lead of men, deferring to men, yet with the couples moving about independently, semi-autonomously, as the proper behavior in other aspects of life. The dance is a physical metaphor for social relationships.

Both song and dance, and they are often combined, are powerful means of propagation of group myth. People who sing and/or dance together come to feel as a group that draws some of its morals from the songs and dances. Experiencing and participating in music is a way for people to unify themselves into a group and stay that way. Even solitary musical experiences can bond a lone individual to a larger group.

Music will also support an ongoing story. Music has been used to support staged drama and various social rituals and holidays throughout history. Music organizes the mood of the audience and thus helps insure everyone will interpret the action as a similar moral demonstration. It helps turn the collection of individual minds into a group mind.

When the romantic violin music comes up in the movie, we all know the boy is about to kiss the girl; it helps ensure the moral demonstration is Love Conquers All. Similarly, they play “Pomp and Circumstance” at your commencement to help you feel that getting your degree is an important and solemn occasion.