What does music mean to humans?

Subject: What does music mean to humans?
From: gnu
Date: 24 May 13 - 07:14 PM

Against some trepidations I decided to give Facebook another go. If for no other reason than to find this by chance, I am glad I did so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKDXuCE7LeQ

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: Janie
Date: 24 May 13 - 10:21 PM

Hope some folks actually open this thread, gnu. And follow the links. And maybe get involved. http://musicandmemory.org/

also see http://www.npr.org/2012/04/18/150891711/for-elders-with-dementia-music-sparks-great-awakenings

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 May 13 - 11:58 PM

Music means just about everything to humans, because it connects to all of life in a strong emotional way. It's when people become emotionally disconnected from life that they just give up after awhile...old folks in nursing homes being a particularly dire example of that. The music can clearly reconnect them to what makes them feel alive again.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: Claire M
Date: 31 May 13 - 02:59 PM

Hiya,

Everything. Literally. I was a Classic Rock reader for a long time.

Despite being unable to play instruments myself, I get on better with those who are musically inclined, or at least interested in it, than those who aren't. Which isn't to say I wouldn't bother talking to those who are/were neither – it'd just be 10x easier to have a conversation with those who are. & forget being in a relationship with someone uninterested!

Nearly all my male relatives are/have been into their music, & – it's been the basis, as well as the end of in some cases – most of my friendships. If you're interested enough there's a song for every situation. Songs can – & do -- take pain away (both physical & mental) get anger out, depress me, warn me, cheer me up.

One of the few things I like about my various living arrangements is they're usually comprised of lots of old rockers – sadly this place is one of the very few exceptions.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: kendall
Date: 31 May 13 - 04:08 PM

Music hath charm to soothe the savage breast.

The main function of music is to free the mind from the tyranny of conscious thought.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: gnu
Date: 31 May 13 - 05:38 PM

Indeed. Art is humanity and vicey versey.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: JennieG
Date: 31 May 13 - 11:58 PM

I can't begin to imagine my life without music in it.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: kendall
Date: 01 Jun 13 - 07:11 AM

It would be cold and grey, like East Germany.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Jun 13 - 10:03 PM

I recently heard this quote, from Rainer Maria Rilke:

"Singing is Being."

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: Dorothy Parshall
Date: 02 Jun 13 - 09:20 AM

"soothes the savage beast" Indeed. A news item years ago told of a woman who lingered too long as her group of hikers in the Rockies moved along without her. She came upon a mountain lion in the middle of her path. She sang to it and managed to sidle by, not turning her back until she attained safety.

Driving in central Ontario at spring thaw, I stopped to watch a deer crossing a lake, concerned for its safety although I could have done nothing had the ice given way. I just wanted to see it safely across. The Celtic music from my car caused the deer to stop and listen until the song stopped and it continued on its way.

When I am not singing to myself incessantly, I know something is wrong. When I do not hear music frequently, I start to wilt.

But when darn fool musicians play their music too loudly, my brain gets angry that it is being physically assaulted.

There is no doubt that music affects our brain waves - This is Your Brain on Music, Musicophilia, etc. And studies on the effect of Gregorian chants.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: Mooh
Date: 02 Jun 13 - 09:59 AM

I have enjoyed "Music, The Brain, and Ecstacy" by Robert Jourdain a number of times, and my copy is covered with postits and highlighted passages. Still available from Amazon last time I recommended it to someone. Superb read.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jun 13 - 03:43 PM

It's savage BREAST, not beast.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 02 Jun 13 - 04:42 PM

I think music hath charms to soothe the savage beast is acceptable in terms of pure folklore & popular / vernacular usage. Pedants, OTOH, may be inclined differ, but this is a Folk Forum after all...

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jun 13 - 07:13 PM

Folk or not, beast is wrong.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jun 13 - 07:15 PM

The phrase was coined by William Congreve, in The Mourning Bride, 1697:

    Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
    To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
    I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
    And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
    By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.
    What then am I? Am I more senseless grown
    Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!
    'Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.
    Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night
    The silent Tomb receiv'd the good Old King;
    He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg'd
    Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.
    Why am not I at Peace?

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: kendall
Date: 02 Jun 13 - 07:16 PM

It's useless to play the violin in front of an Ox.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 03 Jun 13 - 02:33 AM

Similar in numbness.........Try Elephants and Donkeys!!

GfS

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: mg
Date: 03 Jun 13 - 03:08 AM

i think we evolved with it for various reasons..one would be to establish a group rhythm for rowing, chipping rocks, grinding grain etc. one would be to encode information to make it easier to remember..like sagas..or transmit..courtship rituals, lullabies, maybe counting things like ?? sheep?? pass the time...get a group spirit going in war, religion, fertility rituals..who knows.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 03 Jun 13 - 11:43 AM

New Scientist article:

Time spent in communal non-productive endeavours creates a bonding. Ideal for tribal unity. We are, after all, a herding pair-bonding species. And tribal unity can not be more evident than at a soccer game. "Us & Them", communal singing, and partisan crowds.

We can expend 16% more energy exercising to music. Think Shanties. And be more synchronised.

And I have seen (on telly) people suffering Parkinson's who are able to walk (cf not being able to) albeit obviously impaired, whilst listening to certain types of music. MP3's being a "prosthetic" then.

I like the mnemonic aspect highlighted by mg

And story-telling is easier with rhyme. Moral tales like "Bunch of Thyme" could be taught to very young juveniles.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 03 Jun 13 - 12:09 PM

Folk or not, beast is wrong.

I'm just pointing out that many people know it as Savage Beast (do a Google search). That's just describing a reality in which there is no wrong simply because things exist in mutable feral-space and take on a life of their own. Folkies call it the Folk Process (or a Mondegreen), but it's really the way culture moves, forever flying in the face of pedantry. Apart from anything else no one these days says Savage Breast or even knows who William Congreve was, much less what he was getting at in the text you quote, or could even care. I only know myself because The Way of the World was a set text in an English A-level I did a few decades back as a mature student. I wish I could say I was richer for the experience...

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 03 Jun 13 - 01:21 PM

It's amazing the way you can be sitting there and some fantastic bit of music starts playing, and people you are with can be completely oblivious of it. And the same goes for songs. Not that they dislike it, which is always fair enough, it's just not there at all, like the noise of traffic, just maybe something to make you raise your voice as necessary without actually noticing the reason you do so.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: Claire M
Date: 03 Jun 13 - 02:21 PM

Hiya,

Most people relegate it to the background while having a conversation. I tend to do the opposite.

I know not to be too dependent on any one person & why. It has made me closer to my parents than I was before, made me more caring & less selfish, & made me think perhaps I no longer need the various anxiety pills I've taken on & off over the years – or maybe I've just grown up. I've nearly got ill over the thought of favourites of mine splitting.

Some of the music I used to love no longer floats my boat, & I don't know whether this will change in a couple of years' time. When I was growling along to Marilyn Manson you'd never have convinced me my favourite song would be a Latin chant.

I too know something is wrong when I don't hear music frequently. I get really snappy.

I've a term for it – "Concert Comedown"

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: kendall
Date: 03 Jun 13 - 03:31 PM

That saying has been carved in stone for many years. Ignorance can be cured with education, stupidity is forever.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 03 Jun 13 - 05:19 PM

I like mg's ideas. I believe all those things, mg, are reasons for the evolution of music in humans. It must have served a useful purpose or it wouldn't have survived. I wonder how much dance is a part of music? In some parts of the world, music and dance can hardly be separated. The body moves to the music automatically. If we look at our closest evolutionary relatives, ie chimpanzees and other apes, they don't seem to have any kind of music or dance. I wonder why not?

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: kendall
Date: 03 Jun 13 - 07:12 PM

Remember the movie "Zorba the Greek"? Most people dance when they are happy; not him, he danced when he was sad.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Jun 13 - 12:52 AM

I'd call what Gibbons go in for "aerobatic dancing". And they sing as well.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 04 Jun 13 - 02:19 AM

Boy, I could go on about this one for a while!!
I dug the early posts about the 'Old Folks Home', and know that it's true. I periodically drop by and play for a convalescent home...even when I was only six days from receiving open heart surgery! My daughter dropped me off, on her way to her brother's..and I toddled in with oxygen in tow. I've noticed reactions from the 'patients' or should I say 'residents'..and the staff....and I highly recommend ANYONE out there, that if you play, or sing and play, to drop in sometime to your nearest 'Home', and play for them!!! THEY LOVE IT!...and besides, many of them are in those homes, because their families just don't have the time for them...and they LOVE not being forgotten!!!! ...and the emotions they show, to good thoughtful playing, is right there with your best paying audiences'!!..True story!!

As far as music,and what it is, or means to humans....upon release from the hospital, I had to meet with the cardiologist, who performed the operation, who told me, with a bit of wonderment, (exact words), "Your recovery is nothing short of miraculous." In the same conversation, he told me that he had heard my music on YouTube, and that he thought it was VERY healing!...Well, that was 'music to my ears', and I instantly thought of where my head was at, while composing it, and putting it together....so I figured, Aha!..I know what to 'dial into' even closer..which I've done, while recovering at my daughter's.
When I returned for my five week check up and follow-up, with the same cardiologist, I brought with me a stack of CD's, which I gave away to some of the staff, that I had gotten to know, while I was staying there. At present, my music is now being played and used in five different hospitals in four different states, in cardiac-therapy, and several private places that specialize in therapy..including the one I go to, presently, at their request!
I've GIVEN the music free to all those places..not for money, but for wanting to 'put back'....and to do ANYTHING I could to help people heal, and for appreciating the wonderful care that I had received, while staying in the hospital.
So, 'What does music mean to humans?'...well when it seems to have the power to heal, or helping with healing, it must mean a LOT MORE, than we may know.

Ludwig van Beethoven: "The vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man's soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That's what musicians are."

"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine."
― Ludwig van Beethoven

...and why wouldn't there be healing, considering the source???!!!???
That's why musicians who shortchange themselves, by diverting into earthly forms of politics, or do it for money, or recognition or whatever, may be missing out, on the POWER from what you can communicate, from the source to the listener!!!!!!....and what it can set in motion!!!

Regards,

GfS

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: kendall
Date: 04 Jun 13 - 06:43 AM

Music and humor are both great healers.

Subject: RE: What does music mean to humans?
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 04 Jun 13 - 11:35 AM

Daz right!

GfS