Though it’s somewhat subjective, a good case can be made for music being the most evocative, immediate, and downright powerful art form. It’s also one of the of the oldest and most mysterious.
The oldest known instruments – flutes fashioned from bone and ivory – date back more than 40,000 years (stones and sticks may have been banged together like drums even before this, while potential older instruments made from wood or reeds have unlikely survived) but song is relatively newer. Thought to be the world’s earliest melody, ‘Hurrian Hymn No 6’ is an ode to the goddess Nikkal penned on clay tablets around the 14th century BC. The tablets, discovered in the 1950s during a dig in the city of Ugarit in Syria, contain not only near-complete musical notations, but even instructions on how to perform the song on a lyre.
MUSIC & EVOLUTION
Darwin hypothesised primeval man used his voice to produce musical cadences, like a gibbon, in order to attract a mate. Others have suggested our attraction to rhythm is rooted to a time when footsteps had to be synchronised in order to better hear the ‘foreign’ sound of the approach of predators. According to anthropologist Edward Hagen, melodic vocal calls could have been used to identify one’s own tribe, while evolutionary musicologist Dr Joseph Jordania suggests “rhythmically, well-organized noise” served to scare off predatory beasts on the savannahs of Africa. The most romantic – and fitting – evaluation is that music serves no evolutionary purpose, touching that part of us that science can’t reach by simply touching our soul. “There doesn’t appear to be any specific neural module devoted to music (as you might expect if music had been specifically tuned by natural selection),” writes cognitive psychologist Gary Marcus in Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning. “People don’t indulge in the arts because it’s good for their genes; they do it despite their genes.”
MUSIC & EDUCATION
Listening to just 10-15 minutes of music before embarking upon a task may improve focus and concentration, while listening to music during a task can improve efficiency and creativity.
“When you’re stressed, you might make a decision more hastily; you have a very narrow focus of attention,” says Dr Teresa Lesiuk, author of the study ‘The effect of music listening on work performance’, published in Sage Journals. “When you’re in a positive mood, you’re able to take in more options.”
Studying music benefits children in many areas of their lives, including when it comes to grasping other subjects. “A music-rich experience for children of singing, listening and moving is really bringing a very serious benefit to children as they progress into more formal learning,” Mary Luehrisen, executive director of non-profit National Association of Music Merchants Foundation, tells PBR. “Music learning supports all learning.”
Studies also indicate that learning music helps increase IQ while stimulating the same parts of a child’s developing brain that’s involved with processing language. ““Language competence is at the root of social competence,” notes Dr Kyle Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine (and a musician!). “Musical experience strengthens the capacity to be verbally competent.”
MUSIC & MEDICATION
Studies show music to release dopamine and serotonin into our brains, boosting creativity, productivity, and mood, while reducing the levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Research out of Harvard even shows that relaxing music may lower blood pressure and heart rate and is being used more as a form of therapy for everything from pain management to depression to dementia. “There’s just something about music – particularly live music – that excites and activates the body,” says Joanne Loewy, founding director of the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine and co-author of a study about using music to aid the development of premature babies. “Music has a way of enhancing quality of life and can, in addition, promote recovery.”
Psychologist Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, author of the book This is Your Brain on Music argues there’s “compelling evidence that musical interventions can play a health-care role in settings ranging from operating rooms to family clinics,” and was part of study that found music to be even more effective than prescription drugs in reducing anxiety before surgery.
Even those carrying out the medical procedures may benefit. Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that brain surgeons who listened to music while operating performed better than those that did not.
MUSIC, PACIFICATION & COMMUNICATION
Research has even shown that music builds empathy.
“Music is an art often performed in ensembles,” writes Benjamin Bergey for the Yale ISM Review. “It provides opportunities for people to see humanity in one another, helping them to break down barriers and find common ground.”
From church choirs to sporting events and protest marches, when groups of people sing together their voice unites as one creating a sense of unity.
“Music leads to bonding,” comments Oxford University’s Jeremy Montagu, author of ‘The story of music is the story of humans’, published by Science Daily. “It has even been suggested that music, in causing such bonding, created not only the family but society itself, bringing individuals together who might otherwise have led solitary lives.”
And as for what music actually is? Montagu says that it’s simply “sound that conveys emotion”.
