MUSIC ON THE BRAIN

My stomach is doing backflips, I have goosebumps, the hairs on my arms are standing on end and my pulse has quickened. I'm not preparing to speak in public (uuurgh).. instead, this is the reaction I get when I listen to a select few of my most loved pieces of music. It feels similar to going on a rollercoaster, and no matter how many times I listen, at a certain point in each track (usually a key change, or resolution of some sort of chord progression), my body will produce the same response, and usually I'll be grinning like an idiot. I have been moved to tears more than once by a piece of music, and similarly, felt so happy I could almost burst. It has never ceased to amaze me. Music is a collection of sound waves. That's all it is, and most of it isn't even 'real' - just synthetic sounds created on a computer. And yet these sound waves, upon entering my ear canals, somehow have the power to activate those areas of my brain where feelings such as blissful happiness, sadness and nostalgia are generated and processed. I love it.

A lot of interest has been created by neuroscientists recently regarding the relationship between the brain and music. I am obviously no neuroscientist, but nevertheless find the whole topic fascinating. Specifically, why certain pieces of music are more 'moving' or enjoyable than others. It seems, I have read (not very extensively), that we enjoy music that is a challenge to us. To some people this may be surprising - you would think our brains would like nice melodies that follow simple patterns and are 'pretty'. To others (usually people with some musical training) this notion will not surprise - the idea of tension and release in music has been around forever. But why? It is, apparently, to do with the way our brains learn. We learn by association - if this, then this. Our brains have been programmed (whether innately or as a result of culture is under debate) to expect certain things to happen in music. Run up a major heptatonic scale: C,D,E,F,G,A,B,.. and your brain will "hum" the last C, even if it isn't there. Music that creates the most brain activity, avoids this association - avoids giving us what we expect to happen. Satisfaction and pleasure are experienced when the association is eventually made.

Two videos that demonstrate/explain this:

Bobby McFerrin Hacks Your Brain with the Pentatonic Scale

and

Brian Zander on Music and Passion

There is a tonic note in music - a note that feels like 'home'; the most 'significant' note of a song. Even someone with absolutely no musical training would be able to recognise the tonic chord in a song. Good composers will (traditionally) studiously avoid this note until the very end of a piece of music, creating anticipation throughout the piece by suggestively moving towards it but never quite reaching it, and then creating a satisfying sense of resolution at the conclusion, when it is finally reached. Leonard Meyer, who wrote a book on the subject in the 1950s, dissected Beethoven's String Quartet in C-sharp minor - considered a masterpiece by many. By taking apart and analysing 50 measures of the quartet, he demonstrated how Beethoven created a clear rhythmic and melodic pattern, and then carefully presented many variations of it, almost the same as the first but not quite, and all while avoiding a straight expression of the tonic chord - which he saved until the end. Some people believe the emotion in music arises from it's "connotative" meaning - that is, its similarity or ability to mimic or remind us of real-life situations and experiences; instead Meyer suggests that the emotion in music comes from the composition of the music itself - the confusion and conflict created in the piece and the brain's natural tendency to dislike, avoid and reject this, followed by the satisfaction when a resolution is reached.

I don't know a whole lot about this topic so please excuse me if some of my interpretations are incorrect. Much of how all this happens is still largely unknown - we know so much more about sight and vision than we do about sound and hearing.