Why Music Encompasses Everything
Few things dominate our culture today to the same degree as music. It has been at the forefront of the entertainment industry for centuries, and only recently as begun to lose ground to relatively “new” mediums like television and the internet. The ways in which we produce, distribute, and listen to music have changed drastically, but the fundamentals remain the same.
I believe that the lasting appeal of music is not only due to the technological reasons other media did not arise sooner, but because it appeals to almost every aspect of the human experience.
1. History- The history of music is a long and fascinating tale with as much diversity and conflict as the story of any nation or empire. As a historical tool, music has and still is a common method of passing knowledge from generation to generation. Musical tastes, sounds, and techniques come and go as the cultures around them change and evolve. Rivalries between opposing schools produce brilliant works on both sides, each sticking to the core values of the composer and their time but still eluding to a more universal message. Music history is world history.
2. Anthropology- Nearly every known culture in the entire history of the human race has some semblance of a musical tradition. Aboriginal tribes in Australia use song as a way to teach their cultural values throughout their lives in addition . Cultural diffusion can be traced with music in a wide variety of ways- materials, construction methods, instruments, writing technique, even the sounds themselves.
3. Art is an amazingly tricky thing to define, but for the purposes of this article I’ll go with a Wikipedia definition. “Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions.” In this sense it should be obvious- music most definitely appeals to the senses and emotions. Music is also wide open to interpretation; indeed the abstract nature of music has traditionally made it difficult to pin down the message being delivered (just ask Dmitri Shostakovich).
4. Language- Music is a language- a series of symbols and/or sounds strung together to create greater meaning. It is a language that has to be studied and practiced just like any other- one can’t plop yourself down in front of a Rachmaninov concerto after a few runs of Chopsticks just as one can’t glean any meaning from Ulysses after mastering Green Eggs and Ham. Music is written according to a series of rules and conventions, and when those conventions are broken people often do not understand the message. Perhaps most importantly, music is international in that anyone can create and enjoy it.
5. Biology. Humans aren’t the only animals to make music. Birds communicate in a manner that can certainly be classified as musical. Much like we have songs for different occasions, birds have a “library” of songs they use for different situations. Outside the avian world the whales are famous singers, their songs carrying for hundreds of kilometers underwater.
5. Chemistry- Musical instruments change their sound and character depending on the type of material their components are made of. From Stradivarius’ varnish to Tan Dun’s water bowls in Water Passion After St. Matthew, instruments of all different makes have their niche.
6. Physics/Engineering- The standing waves on a violin string follow the same laws as the particles in our universe. Overtones and energy dissipation can make or break an instrument, performer, or performance. Momentum, friction, impulse, thermal expansion and contraction, and many other fundamental physical concepts are intrinsic to music.
7. Mathematics- Music is math. Rhythym, Subdivisions, the study of octaves and intervals, frequencies, scales, harmonics, Fourier transforms- all of these are amazingly complicated mathematical constructions that can be studied in-depth for years.
8. Physiology- Producing a sound- whether from your own voice or on an instrument- a large degree of muscle fitness and fine motor control is required to get the desired result. Stray too far one way or the other and the tuning won’t work, the beat will be off, the sound won’t be right, or your instrument could break. A concert soloist can burn as much energy as a professional athlete in performance, while section players in the winds and brass need a healthy lung capacity to sustain a quality sound from their instruments.
9. Psychology- Music’s impact on the psychological disposition of the individual cannot be understated. Beethoven, losing his hearing and contemplating suicide, responded with the brilliant and bright Second Symphony. Robert Schumann, a sufferer of bipolar disorder, composed obsessively for weeks on end. Music appeals to our own psychological state like virtually nothing else can. Whether it’s guilty pleasure tunes that turn a rainy Sunday into a pleasant experiment in solitude or the haunting Marche au Supplice of Hector Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, the full spectrum of human emotion is explored in countless different ways.
10. Sociology- Music reflects the people that consume it, yet crosses barriers of race, economics, and class. It provides a flexible structure for cultural identity, but at the same time preserves its origins with sounds and rhythymic patterns usually found nowhere else.
11. Economics- The economics of music (especially at the present) is a fascinating study. The music industry would seem to be teetering on the edge of collapse, with anti-piracy lawsuits and DRM being a far cry from the dominance it once held over personal entertainment.
12. Politics- There’s a reason the National Anthem is played before every significant public event. Linking the national identity to a particular tune automatically instills a sense of pride when it is sung or heard. The power of music as a political tool is usually not even that hard to infer. For example, the lyrics of La Marseillaise:
Arise, children of the Fatherland,
The day of glory has come!
Against us tyranny’s blood-stained banner is raised…
To arms, citizens!
Form your battalions,
Let us march, let us march,
May a tainted blood
Drench our furrows!
13. Philosophy- Music has attempted to deal with creation, apocalypse, birth, death, and all of the other big questions concerning the human condition. Much of this stems from the religious philosophy of the culture of origin , but non-religious philosophical movements like Romanticism had their musical champions as well.
The next time you’re at a performance, appreciate that you’re hearing the voice of a person who might have lived hundreds of years ago who is telling you their story in the dialect of their era. The soloist, band, or orchestra is communicating through an established system that combines mental accuity and physical execution in the highest degree. But overall… don’t forget to enjoy what you hear.
Can you think of other ways music relates to life? Leave a comment.
Technorati Tags: Music, Humanities, Science, emotional appeal, philosophy, history, popular appeal, anthem, anthropology, biology, chemistry, culture, economics, engineering, history, language, math, performing, performing arts, physics, Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart, Salieri, Haydn, Paganini, Marseillaise, Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, Schumann, Tan Dun, Stradivarius, Rachmaninov, Chopsticks, Handel, Haydn
