It’s part of every culture’s daily life. From private commemorations to shared social gatherings music accompanies and enhances special events or experiences. Why is this?
Ponder just some of the mindboggling list:
- Birthdays
- Weddings
- Religious services
- Funeral memorials
- National holidays
- Sports events
- Graduation ceremonies
- Parades
- Festivals
- Political rallies
- House and outdoor parties
- Dances (School proms, formal balls)
- Anniversaries (“Our” song)
- Background atmospheres (Restaurants, bars)
- Circuses
- Film scores
- Music-specific occasions (Chamber and orchestral concerts, ballets, operas, musical theatricals)
And (with some exceptions for “modern” or atonal music) in all of these cases the music has a memorable rhythm and melody. Why is that?
Well, it’s because melodious and rhythmic music sets an emotional tone to events. Every event mentioned above is an occasion with some theme behind it.
A joyous celebration, a mournful tribute, a call to action, a display of power, or just plain fun-enhancing background sound — it doesn’t matter —i t’s music that atmospherically enhances the purpose of a gathering whether it’s between two intimate lovers or shared by thousands of cheering spectators.
Furthermore, it’s likely that music has been around for just this purpose as long as two-legged-walking-upright “human” types have existed.
The oldest known musical instrument found in archaeological sites is a flute discovered in Slovenia made from a cave bear’s femur bone and thought to have been made by Neanderthals approximately 50,000 years ago.
Other pre-historic flutes, made from bird bones and mammoth ivory found in Germany date back to 40,000+ years, and because of their complexity are considered to be the earliest evidence of use by Homo sapiens.
A flute sound mimics the quality of a bird’s twirping, so (among other possibilities) it could have been used by primitive humans for “humanistic” mating calls like a birdsong is used by those beautiful and musically endowed winged creatures.
Other early “instruments” like percussive objects — stones and bones used as rattles or drums — could have been used to send signals over distances, similar to how some indigenous cultures use drums for messaging still today.
In addition to its expressively charged communicative powers for specific purposes, every instrument has a physical emotional character or reverberating timbre (based on its materials and construction) from the solid and encompassing warmth of a French horn to the soaring and singing of a violin to the loud and acoustical twanging of an electric guitar.
Musical tastes, choices, and uses change along with changes in a culture as well. During America’s Prohibition Period, couples hung out in hidden speakeasies to drink alcohol — the women wearing glitzy flapper dresses and the men in smart jackets and ties — to dance quick-time to exciting jazz tunes and rebel against government restrictions on their good times and pleasurable leisure activities.
In the peaceful post-World War II climate, physically embraced couples executed intricate-step dance movements and twirled gracefully to the smooth sounds of Big Band orchestras and romantically crooning singers.
In the 1960s anti-war, flower-child environment, loud hard-rock percussive sounds inspired jerky (and often sex-oriented) solo-within-a group movements that vented the frustrations of young people’s protest against the military confrontation at the same time providing an atmosphere of permission to “let loose” from the previous cultures’ moral and behavioral constraints.
The music we choose privately also reveals the emotional state desired. If someone wants to get gassed-up for a physical gym workout or let off kinetic steam by jumping around, screaming, and stomping, they listen to “rock.”
If another wants to calm down after a long, arduous day, they may choose a soothing pan flute serenade. At a formal dinner party with fine food and fancy dress, “rap” is hardly suitable but easy jazz or a chamber music ensemble might be just right.
It's an interesting exercise to experiment around with different musical forms and consciously examine one’s own musical preferences in order to identify exactly why one musical type or instrument appeals to the soul while another grates on the nerves. Why one song brings on hope and happiness and another brings on anger and resentment.
Why Mozart’s melodic and harmonic intricacies bring on an almost celestially blessed sense of order and exquisite beauty to you, or why a grocery store’s screeching background sounds give you energy to shop or make you hurry through your task and get out of the building as fast as possible.
A lot can be learned about oneself by listening to different kinds of music and analyzing preferences and dislikes. AI and YouTube can be valuable resources for an exploration. One can listen to folk music from any remote foreign country or peruse American musical forms throughout our own history.
After determining personal tastes, exploration into the background of any music and all other aspects of its form can reveal its “makeup” thus helping to identify why one prefers it and then relate that information to a value system known or newly discovered.
Music is everywhere: in nature, in our homes, at the gatherings listed above, in solitude, and even in the sounds of silence if we listen carefully. It may surround us and be taken for granted depending on the circumstances. It also can be listened to attentively for personal enjoyment.
Finally, it can be listened to critically to learn more about our own Self.
And on this last “note,” a good and very recent example for self-analysis: If one enjoyed the “music” during half-time at the recent Super Bowl game (as so many in live attendance seemed to do), then the reaction is worth reflecting on because that performance in particular will tell one a lot about personal taste and values held.
Alexandra York is an author and founding president of the American Renaissance for the Twenty-first Century (ART) a New-York-City-based nonprofit educational arts and culture foundation. She has written for many publications, including "Reader's Digest" and The New York Times. She is the author of "Crosspoints A Novel of Choice." Her most recent book is "Soul Celebrations and Spiritual Snacks." For more on Alexandra York — Go Here Now.
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