Music has the power to change lives - Essay Example

Music has the power to change lives When we think of music there are several questions that arise in our minds. How can music change or influence our lives? How does our musical hearing change as we grow old? Do children experience music the same way adults do? How does music stir up emotions? Why does some music make us nostalgic? Does music have a healing power? How does illness or physiological abnormality influence musical experience? Can music have an influence on moral behaviour? This paper helps us to find answers to some of these questions and understand the power of music on changing lives. Music has tremendous impact not only on human beings but also on all forms of life. Music is also a "universal language" that can be heard and understood by different people, and provide a link to socialization for human beings, even when their languages, races, social classes, and cultures are different. Music is about being sensitive to sounds … about listening to sounds you’ve never heard before. These simple sentences speak volumes in terms of a philosophical background for modern music curricula. For ‘being sensitive to sounds’ read ‘being sensitive to what someone somewhere else in the world is saying through musical sound’ (Hurworth, 2003). Music surrounds our lives, we hear it on the radio, on television, from our car and home stereos. We come across it in the mellifluous tunes of a classical concert or in the devotional strains of a bhajan, the wedding band, or the reaper in the fields breaking into song to express the joy of life. Even warbling in the bathroom gives us a happy start to the day. Since time immemorial, music has infused a spark of the Divine in human beings. Stating the esoteric nature of music, Sufi saint and musician Hazrat Inayat Khan said: "The true harmony of music comes from the harmony of the soul. That music alone can be called real which comes from the harmony of the soul, its true source, and when it comes from there, it must appeal to all souls" (Sokhal, 1998). Many argue that music is not a natural kind. Indeed, following a conventional dictionary definition of music - "The art of combining sounds of voices or instruments to achieve beauty of form and expression of emotion" - it would be difficult to do so. The consensual view from within the humanities appears to be that music is cultural rather than natural; music is viewed as constituted of practices, concepts and perceptions that are grounded in particular social interactions and constructions. As Geertz (1973) put it, in promoting a semiotic and interpretive approach to culture, "man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun", and within Geertzs humano-centric web of culture there is little room for the "natural". For Treitler (1980), "Meaning in music is a function of the engagement of codes or orders by the note-complexes of which the musical event is comprised", and musical phenomena are thus "intelligible only in the light of an interpretation which intuits the purpose or intention that they embody". Indeed, Abbate (1991) has suggested that “There is nothing immanent in a musical work (beyond the material reality of its written and sonic traces) and our perceptions of forms, configurations, meanings, gestures and symbols are always mediated by verbal formulas, as on a broader scale by ideology and culture.” "Music" is seen as the expression of discrete, contingent, socially conditioned factors in respect of which a generalisable - and hence scientific - account is neither relevant nor possible (Cross, 2001). Shepherd and Wicke (1997) published their book “Music and Cultural Theory”. The aim of this book as stated in the initial pages is ‘to feed musicology into cultural theory, to consider the implications for cultural theory of a viable theory for the social and cultural constitution of music as a particular and irreducible form of human expression and knowledge’. The authors see their initial task ‘to interrogate those forms of cultural theory which have been central to its development since the late 1950s’ and ‘to determine where the application of cultural theory has had some success in grasping affect in music as socially and culturally constituted’. This book and other similar works help cultural theorists to appreciate music and help musicians or musicologists to recognize the work they do from the viewpoint of theories of culture and society. Music is different things and does different things in different cultures; the bundles of elements and functions which are music for any given culture may overlap minimally with those of another culture, even for those cultures where "music" constitutes a discrete and identifiable category of human activity in its own right. The dynamics of culture, of music as cultural praxis, are neither necessarily reducible, nor easily relatable, to the dynamics of our biologies. Yet music appears to be a universal human competence. It will be suggested that "music", like speech, is a product of both our biologies and our social interactions: that "music" is a necessary and integral dimension of human development: and that "music" may have played a central role in the evolution of the modern human mind. Music in its universal guise not only involves sound and movement, it involves array of reference and meaning. For example, music can function as a means of communication with the dead for the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea, binding birds, souls, places and people at a time of transformation; or music can function in the restructuring of social relations, as in the domba initiation of the Venda. In each of these two very different ceremonies, music is central, it’s meaning rarely if ever explicit but its fugitive significances essential. Music has the capacity to lack consensual reference; it can be about something, but its aboutness can vary from context to context and even within context. Not only may musics significance vary according to social context, but the significances of a singular musical activity can vary from individual to individual (Cross, 2001). Music is a part of education in many schools and colleges. It is said that musical studies integrate mind, body, and spirit. Students who study music prepare themselves for a lifelong appreciation of the musical arts. In many institutions the faculty of the music department guide students along a meticulous pursuit of knowledge in fields such as theory of music, history of music, social/cultural musical context, instrumental/ensemble performance, and musical composition. Musical studies are interdisciplinary, drawing on other disciplines in the arts, humanities, social sciences, mathematics, sciences, and engineering. Studies in music teach transferable skills of value for careers in the professions and business. Scientifically, there are at least three neuro-physical healing processes which may be triggered by music. 1. Music is nonverbal so can move through the brains auditory cortex directly to the center of the limbic system. This system governs emotional experiences and basic metabolic responses such as body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate. It can help create new neuropathways in the brain, as well. 2. Music can activate the flow of stored memory and imagined material across the corpus collosum (bridge between left and right hemispheres of the brain) helping the two work in harmony. This stimulates the immune system. 3. Music can excite peptides in the brain and stimulate the production of endorphins, which are natural opiates secreted by the hypothalamus, which produces a feeling of natural euphoria, shifting mood and emotion (incrediblehorizons.com, 2000). Music is known for its therapeutic use. Today music therapy is used in many parts of the world to cure many problems. Music therapy is the systematic use of music, within a developing relationship between patient and therapist to restore, maintain, and improve physical, emotional, psychosocial and neurological function. For people with Alzheimers Disease and other Dementias music, especially familiar songs, unlocks memories; participation in music improves communication, overcomes withdrawal. For people with Parkinsons Disease and other movement disorders, moving to music helps improve gait, balance and range of motion. For people with Traumatic Injuries, music-assisted physical therapy improves gross and fine motor functioning, coordination, and visual and auditory perception. For people who have had a Stroke, musically assisted speech is used to treat non-fluent aphasia, one of the most common speech disorders following stroke. For people with Acute and Chronic Pain, music therapy provides relief, induces relaxation and eases anxiety. For people with Depression, music is a powerful modality for connecting to feelings, expressing thoughts, and overcoming isolation (bethabe.org, N.D.). In conclusion, “Music changes us all in profound and deep ways,” says several time Grammy Award-winning vocal artist Bobby McFerrin. “For instance, it is therapeutic. It helps to control mood. Whenever King Saul was in a mean-tempered mood, he would have David come and play music for him. Music is universal language and has the power to influence people from different cultures. Music has that power to make you feel good and music can change a person’s life. It has the power to transform a person, literally, in many ways. References Abbate, C. (1991). Unsung voices: opera and musical narrative in the nineteenth century. Princeton University Press. Oxford. bethabe.org, (N.D.). Music Therapy. Retrieved July 28, 2006, from http://www.bethabe.org/Music_Therapy213.html Cross, I. (2001) Music, cognition, culture and evolution. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Vol. 930, 2001, pp 28-42. Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: selected essays. Basic Books. New York. Hurworth, G. (2003) A Philosophical Way Forward: Becoming Human Through Music. A paper for the UNESCO : FIJI Meeting of experts presented on November 25th, 2002, Nadi, Fiji. 28 Jan 2003, Retrieved July 28, 2006, from http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/file_download.php/7869e273c2d6d17a8f041ac794be31a0paper+Gregory+Hurworth.pdf incrediblehorizons.com, (2000). Therapeutic Music: Music for Increased Well Being. Retrieved July 28, 2006, from http://www.incrediblehorizons.com/psychoacoustics.html Shepherd, J. and Wicke, P. (1997) Music and Cultural Theory, Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd, UK; Cambridge. Sokhal, S.S. (1998) Music: Nourishment for the Soul. Life Positive, March 1998, Retrieved July 28, 2006, from http://www.lifepositive.com/body/new-age-therapies/music-therapy/music-therapeutic.asp Treitler, L. (1980). History, Criticism and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Nineteenth Century Music, 3: 193-210. Read More