What is Music?

WHAT IS MUSIC? Music is pure magic. It is a wonderful gift to humanity. Music moves us, and soothes us. It stimulates. It makes us want to dance or sing. It makes us feel happy or sad, inspired or uplifted. It affects our mood in all kinds of infinite ways. It can be exquisitely subtle or wildly raucous: from a lullaby, to a war cry for revolution.

Music is different things to different people: to Ian Skelly, author of the article ‘Beauty Speaks’, above all things music has a transcendental significance that is captured in the beautiful patterns of Nature and architecture – a kind of ‘frozen music’; to Mark Kidel, author of ‘Conversations and Crossroads’, music can bridge cultures in a universal ‘conversation’ that is beyond intellect or reason, but which is heartfelt; to Brian Eno, music brings the joy of unexpected and beautiful sound; and to singer/songwriters like myself and Howard Milner, music – and singing in particular – takes us to a world apart: a world beyond self and ego; a place of emotion that touches the soul.

I present to you an insightful glimpse into the world of music: yet it seems to me that the question ‘What is music?’ has no ultimately fixed answer, because although music can be defined in mechanistic terms as merely vibrations that are detected by the organ of Corti and assimilated by the brain’s cortex into what we hear, that is still only half the story.

It is no accident that the Latin word for breath – that prerequisite of music – is spiritus, for music invokes the spiritual in us. It is of the spirit and so is universal, other-worldly, nebulous and freely evolving. What a wonderful gift to humanity.

EVER SINCE I can remember, music has been an accompaniment to my life. It would be impossible for me to even try and conceptualise a world without music. If you have a natural aptitude and appreciation for it, then music simply draws you to it and connects. Watch a baby nodding her head, clapping her hands, or bouncing in response to a rhythm or melody.

Songs in particular contain something profoundly elemental. The singer actually ‘becomes’ the instrument, or vehicle of communication and expression. Through the combination of voice, lyrical content and poetic structure, melody, rhythm, the nuance of combined tonal qualities and phrasing within the breath, singers can transmit and translate thoughts and feelings, potentially elevating and transporting both the singer and the listener to another realm. Music really can lead us into another dimension.

Music also tells stories, breaks hearts, reduces us to tears, or seduces us into falling in love, over and over and over again. Music is a universal language. A human creation from a divine source… perhaps.

Music is a mystery, a code. A vehicle of spirit and soul. It is perceived through ‘hearing’ the vibration of sound, the most sublime resonance – from the eardrum to the brain. Music moves us beyond intellect to the heart-centre.

I’m not a music ‘expert’. I’m a music lover... A discoverer, an explorer. Music for me is pure ‘potentiality’. I can engage with it. I can commune with it. Sometimes, if I’m open to it, it takes me by surprise, and I step out of myself. Music is a friend, a companion, a guide and a teacher. A challenge, a landscape, a palette, a texture, a shape. Music is chord structure, harmony or dissonance.

Music is culture from every origin; it is identity and belonging. It is history and invention. Music is remembering and forgetting. Music is symmetry, rebellion, genius, prodigy, mastery, virtuoso, dazzling, breath-taking, spell-binding, and extraordinary.

PAUSE FOR A moment to ‘think’ of these sounds: harp, clarinet, kettledrum, xylophone, violin, guitar, trumpet, saxophone, sitar, oboe, flute... They are all uniquely different yet we can ‘hear’ them in our heads, just by thinking of them. Then think of the individual styles of various composers – Bach or Debussy, for example. We can tell the difference between Vivaldi, Couperin and Telemann – and they too have unique ‘sounds’. But what drew them to compose? How could Mozart play with such brilliance at the age of four? What made Miles Davis tick? These are the deeper questions that remain unanswered.

There are other questions that need to be asked: what does the wind sound like, or a dripping tap? Can this be a form of music too? A car door slamming, a baby crying, footsteps, whispers, a log fire crackling, animal sounds, city sounds, bar-room conversations, the roar of a football crowd, a familiar voice, the ocean, early-morning birdsong... Are these sounds musical to your ears?

How does music make you feel? Does it make you nostalgic? Where does it take you in your internal landscape? How can a snatch of music evoke a certain period in your life?

What does silence sound like? Have you ever experienced silence? Do you like it? Are your thoughts too loud? Where is your mind located? Is music located ‘inside’ your mind or ‘outside’ of you?

These are not just random questions; they are the kinds of question rarely posed when young people start to learn how to approach an instrument. Yet, I think they need to be asked, because music is so much more than just going through the motions of producing a sound. People may be able to play well mechanically – because they have learned to copy well – but in doing so they do not truly connect with the essence of music and express themselves.

WE HAVE BECOME so accustomed to recorded sound that it has become rather facile and formulaic. When you can literally access any piece of recorded music at the touch of a fingertip, something valuable gets lost or devalued in the process. Music has become ubiquitous. It’s in shops, restaurants, bars, airports, waiting rooms – in fact, anywhere that people gather. Sadly, in a way, music has become just another kind of social ‘filler’, like small talk or gossip. I get frustrated when I sit down to eat with a friend and we actually can’t have a conversation because ‘background’ music dominates the situation.

People ask me what kind of music I listen to, and quite frankly, it’s come down to the sustained resonance of Tibetan bowls. Why? Because it’s so... so pure and still and utterly beautiful. It is the essence of music full circle, back to the source, the universal vibration.

I guess what I’m saying is that as a music maker and music lover I have become more discerning. I don’t want to listen to music 24/7 just because it’s available to me and I can.

Sometimes I dip into the thing we call “music” and it still takes me profoundly by surprise… as if I were hearing it for the very first time.

Music

We are all aware that music and "atmosphere" go together. We might put on relaxing music for a quiet romantic dinner, but listen to something livelier while doing some physical work or exercise or out socialising in larger groups. You might have heard of farmers who increase production by playing music to their animals, recent studies showing that listening to fast music whilst driving increases the rate of car accidents, and the Mozart Effect claims to increase intelligence. While some claims may be exaggerated, there is no denying that music can suggest and affect our state of mind. But the reason for this is very mysterious. Why should organised sounds affect us to such an extent that billions are spent annually making music?

We're sure some professors may have written volumes about this topic but don't worry, we won't! We just think that it might be useful to record some thoughts on this question, since it is so relevant to other explorations on the mfiles web-site. We think that the main aspects of music which influence us can be summed up as:

• Tempo & Rhythm
• Pitch, Melody & Harmony
• Pattern recognition
• Culture aspects

and will explore each of these facets in turn.

Tempo & Rhythm
Music tends to have a steady tempo to it, often measured in "beats per minute". A simple observation is that most music is in the range of 50-200 beats per minute, the same as the extreme range of our heartbeats. In general too, the tempo of a piece of music roughly equates with the heartbeat associated with the corresponding physical state or emotion which the music suggests.

Anything in the range 60-80 beats per minute is calm and relaxed, less than 60 is often very relaxed, introspective or even depressed. 80-100 is moderately alert and interested. 100 upwards is increasingly lively, excited or agitated and, since we crave some degree of excitement from our entertainment, 80-120 is quite a common tempo, and even 120-160 is common in some energetic situations. We're not saying that there is an absolute correspondence between heartbeat and music tempo, but there is a strong degree of suggestion between the two. Music moves in time and suggests movement, and we tend to associate music unconsciously with movements made by our bodies while talking, walking, running, dancing, riding, etc.

To illustrate this, note that marches are in duple time (2/4 or 4/4 ) giving that "left, ..., left, ..., left, right, left, ..." feel. In contrast to this 3/4 time seems to completely lack that left-right feel, and we therefore frequently associate it with circular motions, like swirling waltzes, or roundabouts at the fun-fair. Music suggesting a horse galloping or a train ride is fast with more complicated rhythms representing 4 legs or several sets of wheels.

This latter example illustrates that while tempo sets the basic pace of music, there are many ways in which composers can alter and adjust this using different note patterns or rhythms. Syncopation is a familiar example with notes unexpectedly landing "off the beat", which adds complexity and interest to a basic beat, often turning a simple march tempo into a jaunty swagger. The rhythym of music can qualify the repetitive nature of the underlying beat by suggesting more or less frequent movement. Even though the tempo of a piece of music might be slow and relaxed, a high frequency of notes can suggest a degree of contained excitement within that relaxed state. But the combination of Tempo and Rhythm has an immediate almost physical impact on our perceptions.

Pitch, Melody & Harmony

Lots of things make noises but in general bigger objects make deeper noises, whether long columns of air or long strings in a musical instrument, big chests, large animal footsteps, or simply large objects generally banging together. Conversely, smaller instruments, short columns of air, short strings, small animals or objects make higher pitched noises. We tend to find large things more threatening than smaller things (part of our evolutionary heritage) so pitch on its own can affect how we percieve sounds and music, providing a basic scale from "high = light, happy, carefree" to "low = dark, sad, ominous". So Pitch on its own affects our perceptions.

A Melody consists of a linear sequence of tones. A good melody (even if it doesn't have words) is often one that we could hum, sing or whistle. In general we prefer melodies where the tones are reasonably close together, with a variety of nice harmonious intervals between them, and a rhythm similar to that of speach. The notes should not be in an extreme range and shouldn't have large awkward jumps between them. The notes should also have durations which are not too short and not too long (often in the range of 0.1 second to 2 seconds). In this way melodies are very similar to sentences that our brains are designed to speak and listen to, although instrumental musical can stretch those boundaries a little.

Unusual things happen when we combine tones of different pitches, called Harmony. Some combinations go well together and some don't. Those notes which combine well seem to be close to what's called the "harmonic sequence". The harmonic sequence is the completely natural set of different notes produced by something vibrating, and is most easily demonstrated musically using brass instruments. The lowest notes of this series are like those produced by a "natural" (without keys) instrument such as a bugle, and include octaves, fifths and thirds. These are just the notes which go well together to make "harmonious" sounds like major chords. On a stringed instrument you can demonstrate the lower notes of the harmonic series by playing the strongest "harmonics" of the strings which divide the length into fractions like halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, etc. These harmonics are always present to varying degrees within all notes, and their proportions help to give sounds their unique colour or tone.

A minor chord differs from a major one by using a "minor third" interval. The minor third is further up the harmonic sequence and therefore sounds remote from the original note, which goes to make the minor chord sound darker and less natural. Other combinations of notes are even more remote on this sequence and can give rise to musical clashes or "dischords". It is worth observing at this point that our equal-tempered method of dividing a music octave into 12 identical intervals produces some notes which are only approximately the exact values of the harmonic series, but nevertheless close enough to deceive most ears. Our long exposure to music based on these 12 notes means that they sound normal anyway.

Pattern Recognition

It is a matter of life and death to most animals that they can focus on important things and ignore unessential ones. Some of this might be instinctive and some learned by experience but at its root it is all about recognising and responding appropriately to certain patterns, maybe weather conditions or vegetation that indicate a good source of food, or shapes or sounds that might indicate danger from a predator.

Human brains in particular seem to have a highly developed and flexible pattern recognition capability. This aspect of our intelligence has allowed us to adapt to many different climates and conditions, make the best use of available shelter and resources, and to build language and culture to communicate to each other and succeeding generations. It also allows us to appreciate and to create pattern for its own sake in the form of visual and aural Arts. The simplest form of pattern is just repetition. If we see something familiar, then it triggers memories and related thoughts, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously. The repetition needn't be exact, but "similar" enough to trigger that familiarity.

Translating this into musical terms, if we hear a similar sound or group of sounds twice, then it clicks with our brains and we recognise this as a Pattern. The pattern is often fairly simple, consisting of a single note or a few notes in sequence. If the sequence of notes is too long, we will struggle to remember them. Conversely if we hear a short sequence of notes repeated many times then this becomes too boring (part of the background which we tend to ignore) and we only notice when there is a change to the sequence. You might have a picture hanging on your wall, but it is so familiar that you don't really notice it any more (until someone removes it). In the same way, we can block out repetitive noise (road traffic or next door's lawn mower) but immediately notice if it suddenly stops.

Some music is designed to be in the background, unobtrusively creating "atmosphere" or ambience in a restaurant, shop, lift or other public place. Such music should be ideally of a common volume, timbre and consistency, in other words "bland"! (It can be annoying if such music is too loud or otherwise obtrusive when you are trying to think or hold a conversation.) Other music is designed to grab your attention, by being loud or otherwise having an immediately distinctive pattern. These two types of music are often played together so that a memorable melody is distinctive and stands out from a simple accompaniment of chords and repeating percussion. Melody and accompaniment is like foreground and background in a visual scene.

In many ways writing music is trying to find a good balance between repetition (pattern) and novelty (not conforming to a pattern). If there is too much pattern then it becomes the norm, our brains then "tune it out" and it becomes part of the background while we turn our attention onto other things. If the music changes and something new arises, it will grab our attention again. But too much novelty is hard to relate to. Music which is ever changing without an immediately recognisable pattern can seem like just random "white noise" and again we "tune it out" as being uninteresting and relegate it to the background. Some composers have experimented with ways of generating musical patterns which might be mathematically perfect, but if our ears don't notice these patterns the music becomes an academic exercise and fails to move the listeners.

Musical patterns give rise to figures, phrases, themes, melodies, forms and styles and help musicians to provide both recognition and variety in music and optimise the listener's experience by providing works that seems consistent and balanced yet with interesting features to make the experience enjoyable. Sometimes people listen with concentration to music and become involved with it, but at other times the music is playing in the background or accompanying another activity. Nevertheless the unconscious experience can have an affect on us, largely due to Pattern Recognition.

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