Um. This may sound pretty dumb to those of you who are trained musicians and/or are very conversant with classical music, but I'm curious about something. You know how certain themes give certain emotions -- you know, dum da dum dum being "scary" and like that -- how far back does that association of certain types of sounds and certain emotions go? I mean, if I listened to medieval music, would it be there? Or Renaissance? Or was it only after large-scale orchestral pieces began to be composed? (I admit, I'm not sure exactly when that was -- 1600s? I know by the 1700s, for sure, but when?) Anyway, I thought it would be a good discussion item...18 responses total.
Actually I think it's a pretty good question, not dumb at all.. I can think of evolutionary reasons why certain types of sounds might trigger certain reactions but for the most part I think our emotional associations with music are primarily learned.. Anyone consider themselves knowledgable in this are who would like to comment?
Eewwwww...now I have to scour my brain for what little knowledge I have on music history. I didn't take Composition and Form at Ricks five years ago, so I will have to depend on the teens here that are better trained than I am. Or perhaps Dave, Scott, or arabella (Leslie) will know. (Leslie, where are you when I need you?!? You're the one with the degree-- I don't even have a bachelor's yet! Ken?) Ok, I'll start with the basic of basic. Consider the psalms of the ancient king of Israel named David. Although there is a variety of emotions expressed there, I am positive that the musicians played 'answer' in a call-and-answer style (where 'Selah' is presumed to be the command to strike up the band). From this time until the invention of Gregorian chant, music was used primarily for celebration. Exceptions include the Native Americans, who sang songs for mourning, and possibly the Eastern cultures. Other than that, I can't think of any other examples. Gregorian chant signaled the start of written music. This particular genre is fairly neutral emotionally-- relatively calm and peaceful, yet alert-- setting an appropriate tone for the church. Although the church had a strong role in the shaping of music at the time, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance saw the advent of the bard. Bards, as secular musicians, were either troubadours of the king's court, or were traveling entertainers-- the earliest folk musicians on record. They juggled and told stories as well as they did sing songs. They sung about quite a number of emotions-- any, but usually mixed with love-- tragedy, bravery, wanderlust, longing (the Gypsies especially sang with longing for their homelands), humor, etc. Of course, I'm sure even the bards sung about piety at times. I also understand musicians worked to imitate sounds, so sound effects of birds and nature were not uncommon at the time. After Gregorian chant and the end of the Renaissance, the modern system of music notation came into use, so major and minor scales were developed-- the one sounding happy, and the other sad. Religion still played a major role in music. For example, the three-note chord symbolized the Trinity. However, the interval with exactly six half-steps in it (correct me if I'm wrong?)-- known as the 'tritone'-- was called the devil's interval, and anyone caught playing it got their hand (hands?) cut off. My first theory teacher told us we'd get an automatic F if we were caught playing it as well. He also discouraged chord digressions (opposite of progressions) since they have a tendency to sound depressing as well. He deducted double the points for a V (dominant) to IV (sub-dominant) progression, which is, say, a G chord to F chord progression in the key of C. (This really does NOT sound good and I doubt anyone uses it anyway.) To understand how much religious passion played a part of the Baroque period, one should consider Johann Sebastian Bach, and the theology of the early Lutheran church. From what I read, his composing and his belief dovetailed each other-- in a composition, the right hand melody passages would be his handiwork, while the left hand passages would be the grace and power of God. From this time on out, as you have surmised, most of humankind's passions and emotions were being expressed in music, and I cannot hope to explain them all succinctly. Certainly the organ, which had slowly been developed from a Roman precessor existent in the late Empire, expressed these emotions with more intensity. And then there was Beethoven, the great classical/Romantic composer, who had the stormy disposition of a Greek god, and who was inclined to brood a lot. The opening movement to his 5th Symphony and the first movement of his "Moonlight Sonata" ar fire and ice-- intens, aggressive expression in the former, and quiet, reflective pondering in the latter. There is no doubt Beethoven intended the "Moonlight Sonata" to be romantic as well as Romantic-- it is said he wrote it to impress a woman. I say no more. Expound as you will.
If certain styles of music didn't evoke certain human responses, there'd be a whole lot of movie score writers out of work! ;-)
I would venture that emotion and music were connected prehistorically - from the first time anyone beat out a rhythm on a lump of wood. Just the difference between fast and slow rhythms evokes different memories and thoughts. For that matter, it is prehuman! Bird songs act to create emotions in birds; crickets chirp to create emotions. These emotions drive sexual activities - and similar emotions from music also drive sexual activities in humans.
Erm. I guess what I was trying to ask was -- say you have an Australian aborigine, or maybe a Mennonite/Amish person, who hasn't been exposed to movie music, classical music, etc (as we all have been via radio, teevee, etc.), and you sat them down in a room and played the music from the shower scene in Psycho for them, what would they feel? Would they "know" it was a scary scene? Ditto, say, the Hallelujah Chorus or some other piece of joyous classical music.. How much of what we :know: about music and its emotional effects are leaerned and how much are hard-wired in? How did this language of emotion get started? Is it universal?
Personal opinion: The emotional content of music is local, not universal. It's culturally conditioned. I remember back in my hippie phase listening to a recording of Indian ragas by Ravi Shankar. In the liner notes, Shankar described the ragas as expressing sadness, longing, joy, and so on, but to my ears they were all interchangeable. On the other hand, I once read a story about an Indian musician attending his first concert of European music. When asked after the concert how he liked Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, he joked that it sounded a lot more pastoral to him before that guy with the stick came out and started waving it around. (I.e., while the orchestra was still tuning up.) After Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, all music expressive of the out-of-doors had to have the same elements. The droning chords underpinning the melody that characterize Beethoven's 6th actually sounded like bagpipes to his listeners, which meant "rustic" to them. That sound means nothing of the sort to us, but it does sound "pastoral," because...because that's what out-of-doors music sounds like, ever since Beethoven. That's how things get started. Listen to pre-1800 music all you like and you won't hear any of the sounds that affect us so deeply and that seem so eternal and universal. You'll hear lots of lovely things, but you won't here Wagner's woods, or Tchaikovsky's yearning, or Mahler's angst.
Well, the ear is tuned instinctively to recognize certain tones and patterns, I'd imagine for the purpose of communication, originally. It affects the way we here music to some extent.
"...tuned instinctively..."?? You mean, hard wired? What evidence do you have for that (apart from the audible frequency range), given the variety of *languages* and language tones and patterns? What would identify as a strictly common tone or pattern for all languages? I don't know of any studies of it, but I would not be surprised if there is at least a little relation between musical styles and languages.
Interesting. I wouldn't doubt that music has a strong cultural component.
Babies automatically react to certain tones from their parents. Humans have certain tones of voice that are universal--you can tell that a person is very angry, in any language, by the way they talk. I'm not sure how much it translates to music, but there are things that arent' entirely learned.
Not necessarily, Steve-- I'd say you can tell a person is angry from a combination of things, but mainly facial expression. My mother used to say Asians sounded angry a lot speaking their languages-- but then they don't express much emotion.
Also, the ears are tuned to hear harmonic sounds and music and such... it's not learned necessarily.
Could anyone please tell me why Enigma seems to be coming straight into the heart? Are the harmonics identifiable straightaway? Or ???
What we heard as a wonderful Thrid World Rythm, interesting because it is new, just me be a declaration of war and parade of insults from one side to another. So, if you first to greet the alien out of the flying saucer, be carefull of what you sing.
As I said in my intro over in item: #2, you can usually tell what kind of mood I'm in based on what I'm singing.
Gee, no one could respond to my #14 for a year and a half?
Could you rephrase what you just said? I mean, what the hell were you trying to say?
re: resp:16 No one responded to this item for a year and a half? That's criminal.
You have several choices: