The Emotional Power and Pull of Music
“Music gives access to regions in the subconscious that can be reached in no other way.” (Sophie Drinker). The more complicated our thoughts and emotions, the less effective is language as a tool of expression. Music is a form of communication that conveys meanings that cannot be expressed with ordinary words.
Music has the power to soothe (think of mothers singing lullabies to their babies), to captivate, to stimulate, to encourage, to rally or rouse, and evokes a deep emotional response in many people.
How can we explain this deep fascination with music, this impact of music on our emotions? Our emotional response to music is highly complex—linked to our listening experience; memory and associations (a sound reminds us of an earlier experience, or sound can help us visualize some event); conditioning (we’ve come to think of major chords as being happy and minor chords as sad, for example); a rhythmic connection between ourselves and our world; mood at the moment; and expectations. And yet, it’s also true that composers through the ages have exploited the mathematical relationships among rhythms, melodies, harmonies and other aspects of music to create and change emotions.
Neuroscientists have tried to study the connection between auditory pleasure and a deep physiological response. Some researchers have also tried mathematically to quantify the emotional impact of music. They found that they could accurately quantify (only) a few of the basic elements in music’s ability to change our emotions. It is true that some music can pulse through one’s brain and body, mirroring and triggering some electrical impulses and patterns, thereby creating feelings of joy, satisfaction, contentment, or even fear.
I believe that ultimately this is unquantifiable, that certain music evokes a deep personal response that will vary from person to person; that the same piece of music may bring one person to tears and have no effect on another, regardless of the music’s mathematical composition.
How to explain the deep feeling of joy or sadness evoked by the haunting quality of a clarinet concerto, for example? That feeling that the sounds are entering into your very soul and becoming part of your consciousness, or perhaps sub-consciousness? I don’t think you can. It just IS.
Anyway, the main point here is that music of various kinds is very important for most people all around the world in some way, and our lives are vastly enriched by it.
What do you think?
