Why We Love Music

Why does a person love his sweetheart, his food, his safety, his social fellowship, his communion with nature, his God, approaches to the ultimate goals of truth, goodness, and beauty? The answer to each of these is a long story, involving not only common sense and scientific observation but a profound intuitive insight, a self-revelation. In all, it will be found that love is a favorable response, a reaching out for the satisfaction of a fundamental human need, an effort to secure possession, and a willingness to give an equivalent, indeed a more or less unconditional surrender.

In all efforts to describe and explain, we reach out for specific reasons or at least rationalizations. Modern science has made great strides in revealing and describing all sorts of reasons for such emotional experience and behavior. The theory of the evolution of man, the anthropological implementation of this in the history of the rise of mankind, the psychology of the mental development of the individual, the comparison of this with animal behavior, and the inspired interpretation of these motives in literature, especially biography, autobiography, and poetry, are sources to be drawn upon. We have the adage that the explanation of one blade of grass involves the explanation of all the forces of nature. This aphorism certainly applies in the attempt to explain any particular human love.

It is therefore evident that any attempt to account for a specific affection, such as the love of music, must be fractionated, placing responsibility in turn upon the scientist, the artist, and the self-revelation of the inspired music lover at each culture level. It has become the recognized function of the psychology of music to integrate the contributions from all scientific sources, such as anatomy, physiology, anthropology, acoustics, mental hygiene, and logic, in their bearings upon the hearing of music, the appreciation of music, musical skills, theories, and influences. To account for the emotional power of music, the psychologist must consider the taproots of the artistic nature of the individual in relation to the nature of the art object, music. He must trace the unfolding of the organism as a whole from inherited reflexes, instincts, urges, drives, and capacities in an integrated pattern; he must consider the function of the art in human economy and especially the goals attained by the pursuit of the art. In this task there is room for intricate specializations and division of labor. It is my purpose here to present merely a rough skeletal outline of some of the outstanding features which underlie the love of music from the psychological point of view.

Every impulse has two aspects: attraction and repulsion. All of us love music in some degree; all of us hate some music; and most of us in the economy of nature are comparatively indifferent and extravagantly wasteful to the role that music might play in our lives. Hatred and indifference to music are important realities in life worthy of serious consideration; but our topic restricts us to the positive side of musical response, the love of music.

THE MUSICAL MEDIUM

Organic response. Man is born with a psychophysical organism which registers sounds and responds to them somewhat like a resonator, which selects, amplifies and aids in the integration of auditory impressions. Our whole organism responds to sound involving the central and peripheral nervous system, all the muscles, all the internal organs, and especially the automatic nervous system with its endocrines, which furnish the triggers in the physical generation of emotion. Experiments from various sources have shown that sound acts physiologically on nervous control, circulation, digestion, metabolism, body temperature, posture and balance, hunger and thirst, and in general, the groundwork of pleasure and pain. The physical organism as a whole responds to sounds in specialized functions.

Thus, man comes into the world tuned to music. The organism responds to sounds from earliest infancy. Back of all conscious awareness, back of all musical feeling, even back of subconscious assimilations and elaborations is the purely physiological response which is a function and a condition of well-being. This physiologically beneficent response of the organism to sound underlies all musical experience; without it we could not love music.

Sounds in themselves. Like colors, sounds may be beautiful in themselves, quite apart from music. A single sound in nature or art is capable of appearing in endless variety in terms of pitch, dynamic value, duration, tone quality, and noise. It may be an object of beauty in itself in thousands of ways quite apart from its utility in music or musical perception. We find the tonal world in which we live full of beautiful and useful sounds which we love because we are capable of intellectual and emotional response to their beneficent influence. They play a large role in our feelings of attraction and adjustment. They may be beautiful to the untutored and intuitive mind as well as to the intellectually and esthetically cultured mind in the same way that flowers may seem beautiful to a child because they arouse an immediate pleasurable feeling; and yet they are not music but merely the raw material from which music is made. These raw materials from which the musical structure is raised are themselves beautiful, quite apart from musical experience or behavior. They play a large role in the love of nature.

Thus, before the beginnings of music, primitive man responded affectionately to the sounds of nature and was guided by them in his daily life. Even before language took form, single sounds carried meaning and gave satisfaction. Man took pleasure in his own vocal utterances or mechanically produced sounds which played a large role in his human economy and development.

Music proper. Sounds may be woven into beautiful patterns. This is music. We admire the melodic progressions, the rhythmic patterns, the harmonic structure, and the qualitative modulations in the flow of beautiful sounds. Harmony, balance, symmetry, contrast and fusions become embodied in musical form. Here the object of our affections is the artistic creation. The place of the musician is quite analogous to the astronomer's feeling of the sublime as he looks into the heavens in the light of his knowledge of the nature and movement of heavenly bodies.

Music with words and action. Much of the charm of music lies in its association with words which carry the message, as in song. The center of interest in much of the vocal art lies in the meaning conveyed by the words where the music serves as an artistic embellishment. This is true of the lullaby, the cowboy song, the lover's plea, and grand opera. Likewise, much of the charm of music lies in its association with overt action as in dances, work songs, marches, and games, where action is rhythmic. This added power of the music lies not only in the dance steps but more conspicuously in the suggestive rhythms divided into intricate patterns often far surpassing the score or the physical performance. That is what we mean when we say music carries. In such situations the musical appeal may lie for one person in the verbal message or the overt action and for another, purely in the musical appeal. Yet both words and action on the one hand and music on the other are enriched through the association.

Symbolism. Music finds its highest and most universal expression in symbolism. Music is primarily a way of expressing moods, attitudes, feelings, and longings in generalized form. The listener tends to live himself concretely into the feeling suggested. In the esthetic mood he is not aware of the mechanics of the symbolic suggestion, for which the art has many resources, and he may not be aware of the music as such; but he lives realistically within his own personal realm of interests. Thus, music sounds the keynote on great festive occasions in the powerful forms of festive music, as in the great sacred oratorios and simpler but beautiful forms of church music or in triumphant marches and other festive celebrations in major form. But minor forms, as in tone poems and haunting melodies, work on the same principle and perhaps fully as effectively. From the grandeur suggested by the sonata to the serenity arising from the simplest bit of improvization in voice or instrument, music has unlimited power to seize the individual for some form of dreamlike realization of the subjects of his longings.

THE MUSICAL MOTIVES

What we are called upon to explain then in the attraction for musical art is essentially the motives which drive man to the creation, appreciation, and performance of music. One of these motives is the love of knowledge as a thing in itself, the understanding of what is, and the power of passing from vantage ground to vantage ground in the logical creation, appreciation, and execution of art forms.

Musical knowledge. This love of music for its cognitive value can be traced from the earliest musical achievements, as in the growing acquaintance with song, sight reading, qualifications for participation in music, and appreciation of art forms, throughout all stages in the musical development of the individual up to that of the highest interpreters and creators of music. While music is a play on our feelings and appeals primarily to our emotional life, an intellectual mastery of the process, the ability to understand artistic meanings, the ability to construct beautiful art forms, the ability to analyze elements in the power of music, the ability to see the relation between musical art and other forms of art, and the ability to comprehend the unity of all the arts, are basic in our love of music. Even in the cool and logical pursuit of the science of music, foundations are laid for the deepening of insight and the revelation of artistic values. Glimpses into the vistas of unexplored resources intensify the admiration, the feeling of awe, the glimpse into the infinite which is love of the object pursued.

The role of intelligence in music is well illustrated in recent experiments in which vocabulary was measured in three groups; namely, ten nationally well-known composers, ten of the most successful students in a large class in composition, and ten of the least successful students in the same class. It was found that the master composers and the successful students of composition ranked in or near the top in a test of general vocabulary; whereas, the unsuccessful students ranked near the bottom. Since knowledge of words is an index for the possession of ideas, it is significant to note that successful composers are persons who have a large and discriminating command of ideas.

Musical feeling. It must be recognized that the love of music is essentially an unanalyzed feeling. Countless people feel the esthetic appeal in music without understanding anything about it. It may be like the notorious puppy love, which is frequently blind, but nevertheless a deep love. This is particularly true in the earlier stages of the development of musical interests. But it is occasionally in evidence in the successful singer on the stage who may be blissfully ignorant of the principles underlying his art, the media he seeks to mold, or the significance of his message. There is much justification for the performer's forgetting what little he knows and indulging in self-expression in a state of abandon in which he deeply feels his message and expects to convey this feeling to the listener.

We must distinguish between two attitudes in listening to music and in the performance of music: the critically analytical and the purely emotional. An intelligent musician is capable of both and loves both. In the learning stages he pursues the former attitude primarily until techniques are mastered and habits are formed which operate automatically in the musical situation. This is also the dominant attitude of the music critic. But in seeking the enjoyment of music and in the unified expression of a thing beautiful, the musician takes the other attitude. Paderewski would be hopelessly lost and ineffective if, at the moment of performance, he should be consciously aware of all the art forms of which he is master. The successful performance comes in an inspirational attitude, the semi-ecstatic feeling of the beauty one seeks to convey, a state of forgetfulness of self and concrete facts.

Thus music is a language of emotion. Through it the composer and the performer convey their own emotions to the listener. It is a message and a means of communication which enable the performer and the listener to live for moments in the same tonal world of pleasure. Our muse is jealous and seeks to exclude all intruders at the moment of her artistic appeal.

Musical action. On a par with the intellectual and emotional approach is the role of action in music. Consider for a moment the central place of rhythm. The composer presents a hierarchy of rhythms: the measure rhythm, the phrase rhythm, the sentence rhythm, the movement rhythm, all moving into a unified beautiful artistic structure. The performer takes this as a cue and adds or detracts, as the case may be, by his personal interpretation. Modern psychology has shown that all musical listening is action, a constructive response on the part of the listener.

All rhythm is primarily a projection of personality. My rhythm flows from what I am. A large part of the pleasure in music comes from a satisfaction in what rhythm does. Rhythm facilitates perception by grouping; rhythm adjusts the stream of attention; rhythm gives a feeling of balance; rhythm gives a feeling of freedom, luxury and expanse; rhythm gives a feeling of power, it carries; rhythm, as in the dance, stimulates and lulls, contradictory as this may seem; rhythm finds resonance in the whole organism; rhythm arouses sustained and enriched associations; rhythm reaches out in extraordinarily detailed complexity with progressive mastery; the instinctive craving for experience in rhythm results in play, which is free self-expression for the pleasure of expression; rhythm plays not only with temporal but also with dynamic and qualitative aspects of tone. Subjectively, rhythm in music is a play within a play: The composer anticipates it, the performer gives the cue, and the listener expresses himself in it.

Music as play. All art is play, and the charm of music, the purest form of art, lies fundamentally in the fact that it furnishes a medium of self-expression for the mere joy of expression and without ulterior purpose. It becomes a companion in solitude, a medium through which we can live with the rest of the world. Through it we express our love, our fears, our sympathy, our aspirations, our feelings of fellowship, our communion with the Divine in the spirit of freedom of action.

Note the fundamental characteristics of play and observe how in these lies the power of attraction in music as play. Play gives a feeling of self-realization; it is the experience of growth. It expresses the racial life and in many respects is a reversion to type: It has been said that we are all of the same age—millions of years. Play is a realization of the sense of freedom; it attracts, engages and fascinates by the very satisfaction which it engenders and which supports it; the dance, when it is real play and not mere social labor or conformity, carries the dancer in so far as he falls into a state of diffuse and dreamy consciousness, intoxicated by the sense of pleasure, lulled by the automatic rhythmic movements, and soothed by the melodious and measured flow of music. Play gives satisfaction in the feeling of being a cause, of having creative power. Play is essentially social and findsfinds its highest realization in good fellowship. Play is positive, an expression of the joy of life. The unrestraint and spontaneity of play result in strenuous and whole-hearted exertion; the seriousness of play is one of its fascinations. Success in play lies in its fictitious nature; it rests upon make believe; liberated from realities, it accepts the ideal and lives it as real. In the possibility of playing with the ideal lies a fundamental charm of music.

Musical imagination. Music is by no means limited to what is composed, performed and listened to in the objective situation. Its main field of operation lies beyond the sensory impressions and overt actions. Its principal domain is the tonal world of memory, imagination, thought, and pure feeling. Millions of people are today under the spell of Over the Rainbow, as rendered in The Wizard of Oz, a simple, compelling thing which takes possession of us in the dream, and in the humdrum of daily activities; it lives within us realistically, quite apart from actual sounds so long as it is novel. This is especially true of the higher forms of art with all their intricacy and refinements in artistic form which the trained musician can re-live or create. Over the Rainbow, the expression of our freedom and self-realization in the spirit of adventure, lies within the power of music.

Who loves music? The love of music is not universal. Deep, warm, and poised devotion to music is comparatively rare. Much of music is plain work, sheer drudgery. Much is climbing toward a goal never to be attained. Many who ply the art of music can hardly be said to love it in the long run. There are aspiring artists who devote a lifetime to the mastery of the skills, but become hypercritical and sour when they fail to feel the esthetic glow or gain the command of public acclaim. Many an aspiring amateur suffers a similar defeat. To the masses, music is but fleeting incidents, occasional whiffs of the overflow from the wealth of human appeals to a latent artistic nature. It is a notorious fact that many who profess a love of music do not have it, but are mere pretenders and imitators, conscious or unconscious, and that many who disavow it are merely dying with all their music in them.

For such failures and inadequacies there are many possible explanations. One of the impediments to the love of music is the absence of the "gift", a naturally musical mind. In this there are enormous differences in kind and degree. It follows that there will be corresponding differences in the kind and degree of love for music. While music springs spontaneously in the gifted child and youth, education is as essential for music as it is for science or language. One might as well attempt to acquire learning without study as to acquire music without training. Then again, as is a person's intelligence, so is his music. And creative imagination is a tool with which music is fashioned from childhood to the heights of artistry. Furthermore, we must recognize that for really expressive love and devotion to music we must look to the often justly or unjustly maligned musical temperament.

Yet the company of music lovers is great. Music is the most universal avocation. This has been true of all races throughout all times and at all culture levels. Only a fraction of one per cent of persons who hear music or practice it do so vocationally. We, the people, preserve it primarily as an avocation, an activity purely for pleasure and cultural enrichment. The love of music abounds at our time and in our country; yet we are but at the beginnings of a dawning musical era. The increase of leisure time, high educational level, and the astounding invention of instruments for the production and transmission of musical sounds forecast its rise.

Why then do we love music? Among other things we love it because it creates a physiological well-being in our organism; it is built from materials which are beautiful objects in themselves; it carries us through the realms of creative imagination, thought, actions, and feelings in limitless art forms; it is self-propelling through natural impulses, such as rhythm; it is the language of emotion, a generator of social fellowship; it takes us out of the humdrum of life and makes us live in play with the ideal; it satisfies our cravings for intellectual conquest, for isolation in the artistic attitude of emotion, and for self-expression for the joy of expression.

General Principles

(1)

Music is pursued primarily for the pleasure of the pursuit without ulterior purpose.

(2)

When music renders service, this service is essentially the giving of pleasure.

(3)

The depth and the quality of a person's affection for music vary significantly with the degree and kind of musical inheritance.

(4)

If the natural urge toward music is there, it will be readily molded through training and facilitation of the environment.

(5)

It is psychologically possible to present a natural history of the origin and development of the love of music in terms of its objects and motives.

(6)

The inceptive psychology of musical experience and behavior can be pursued in the laboratory and the studio through experiment and measurement.

(7)

There is a charm in knowing that we love music but even more so, why and how.

(8)

It is also worth knowing why some people do not and others cannot love music.

Questions to Consider

(1)

Is the play attitude in music opposed to hard work?

(2)

Why is high intelligence essential to the composer?

(3)

Can a moron love music genuinely?

(4)

Is the musical temperament essential for the love of music?

(5)

How can the adrenal glands affect the love of music?

(6)

Is the love of rhythm primarily inherited or acquired?

(7)

What hereditary factors may block the development of the love of music?

(8)

What factors in musical talent are most telling for the development of the love of music?

(9)

What educational motives are most effective as a means of enhancement of the love of music?

(10)

What is the nature of musical ecstasy?

Discuss These True Situations

(1)

The typical "house" for the season's performance of the symphony orchestra is arrayed in festive attire and poses in attentive and festive mood. Make an estimate of the relative proportion of the audience there (a) to see and be seen, (b) to perform a social obligation, (c) to satisfy curiosity, (d) to learn something about music, (e) to thoroughly enjoy the orchestral music.

(2)

A primitive savage lives close to nature and observes sounds produced by man and beast, by wind and sea. May he feel musical affection for these sounds apart from their utility and apart from knowledge of man-made music?

(3)

In an aristocratic family there are four children, all manifestly lacking in musical talent, but intelligent and co-operative in education. They are all given excellent advantages of musical education and environment and pursue them as a matter of course. Are they likely to come into a warm love of music?

(4)

It has been observed that when one listens to very beautiful music he tends to swallow saliva by gulps, as the young lover does in a state of infatuation; and that when he hears vile music, there is a tendency to want to spit. In other words, there are two ways of disposing of saliva under emotion: Attraction, indicated by swallowing; and repulsion, indicated by feeling the need of spitting. Can you verify that?