THE POWER OF MUSIC

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THE POWER OF MUSIC

• Glenn Wilson PhD
• Kings College London
• Institute of Psychiatry

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MUSIC MATTERS

• Plays important role in lives of most people
  top leisure interest.
• A primary value, comparable to family and sex -
  ranks higher than religion, sport and travel.
• A quarter of students listen more than 5hrs/day.
• Desert Island Discs exercise reveals sense of
  self-identity.
• Music preferences appear in standard tests of
  partner compatibility.
• Why should this be? How does music impact our
  emotions so powerfully?

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EFFECTS OF MUSIC SOME FINDINGS

• Stroke recovery enhanced by listening to music
  verbal memory improved 60, as against 18 for
  audio books. Also less confused and depressed.
  (Helsinki Brain Research Centre, 2008).
• Lifts spirits, calms, and revives happy memories
  in Alzheimers patients.
• Can reduce stress and reinforce the immune
  system.
• Assists with pain management in dentistry and
  hospices.
• Classical music played in wine stores prompts
  purchase of classier wines (pop sells more
  plonk). Reduces vandalism at railway stations.
• U. Illinois study found ideal rhythm for
  jump-starting heart is Bee Gees Stayin alive
  (108 bpm).
• Can be motivating - drives soldiers into battle,
  empties a theatre more quickly after the curtain,
  increases productivity in factories with
  repetitive work, may pace Parkinsons patients
  into walking.

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SHIVERS DOWN THE SPINE

• Goldstein (1980) defined a musical thrill as a
  shudder, chill or tingling sensation, usually
  beginning at back of neck but migrating over the
  scalp, face and downwards - often accompanied by
  gooseflesh.
• Due to a confrontation with something of
  extraordinary beauty or profound and moving
  significance (music tops list of
  thrill-invokers).
• Blocked by naloxone (opiate antagonist), hence
  endorphine release involved. (i.e., music gives
  pleasure parallel to euphoriant drugs).
• According to David Huron (Ohio State U.)
  shivers or frissons occur when the frontal
  cortex damps down an amygdaloid fear response
  triggered by some aspect of the music (e.g.
  surprise, crescendo, scream-like sound).

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EVOLUTIONARY THEORIES

• Sexual selection (Darwin). Music is a courtship
  display an auditory peacocks tail. In some
  birds only the male sings, and this under control
  of testosterone. Less obvious at primate level.
  Humans use music for many other purposes.
• Emotional speech (Spencer). When we are excited
  our pitch rises, intervals are more marked and
  regular, words are stretched. Such emotional
  magnification might contribute to impact of
  music.
• Long-distance communication (Stumpf). When
  calling over distance, voice is raised in
  intensity pitch, tone sustained and stabilised.
  Drums (bush telegraph) also use rhythm.
• Supernatural language (Nadel). Music is a
  special, transcendental language for connection
  to the other world (hence use in ritual
  ceremonies power to create ecstasy and
  intoxication).

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WOMEN MORE RESPONSIVE TO MUSIC?

• Finger temperature decreases to music
  (womengtmen).
• EEG response to sad music greater than happy
  (womengtmen).
• Therapeutic effects of music (womengtmen).
• Moods induced by music affect memory (womengtmen).
• Women (not men) judge music they dislike as
  louder than preferred music at same volume.
• Girls identify mood of music (choosing
  appropriate schematic faces) better than boys.
• Frissons 7x more common in women than men
  (Huron).

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BIOSOCIAL NATURE OF MUSIC

• Physiological rhythms can be paced by music
  (lullabies slow breathing, acceleration increases
  heart beat, repetition can induce trances,
  syncopation missed heart beat or snatched
  breath).
• Many universal features of music, e.g. use of
  pentatonic scale and harmonics.
• Cross-cultural similarities in melodies of
  different types (war, mourning, love songs, etc)
  can be seen in sound spectrograph analysis.
• However, cultural learning also involved. Music
  involves a grammar acquired by exposure. Used
  for historical record-keeping in tribal society.

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EVOCATIVE ASSOCIATIONS

• Music presents supernormal stimuli simplified,
  exaggerated versions of natural sounds.
• Engages emotions by imitating sounds of
  instinctive significance (birdsongs, babbling
  brooks, footsteps approaching, thunder, animal
  roars, cries of anguish, etc.) Innate brain
  cells/circuits are geared to respond.
• Metaphorical associations (analogies) also apply,
  usually visual images (love duets that soar into
  the sky, patriotic marches that are noble and
  uplifting, joyful pieces that are young and
  sprightly).
• Also conditioned associations connections
  between musical segments and things happening at
  the time (c.f. nostalgia, leitmotifs). Begin
  early in life, perhaps even prenatally.

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TONES AND TENSION

• Musical structure centres on tonality we make
  sense out of a piece by identifying a key note
  (the tonic) around which tune and harmonies
  revolve, without which it could not end
  satisfactorily.
• In Western music, note 5/8 (the dominant) also
  has tension-reducing properties a partial
  resting place in the scale.
• Note 7/8 (the leading note) is most tension
  producing cries out for resolution by tonic.
• Scale is prototypic of musical structure
  setting up tensions that we gain pleasure from
  having relieved.
• Enjoyment greater with delayed gratification
  appoggiaturas, turns, trills deceptive cadences
  are all teasing devices.

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MELODIC STRUCTURE

• Common melodic patterns support this completion
  theory of music departure from, then return to
  a safe base (c.f. the toon in Roger Rabbit).
• Gap-fill melodies large jump in pitch, followed
  by sequence of closer intervals that fill the
  gap (e.g. Somewhere over the Rainbow).
• Changing-note melodies pattern of tonicgtleading
  notegt2nd notegttonic (e.g. C, B, D, C)
  (Mademoiselle from Armentieres). Several
  variants, but always harmonised by chord
  progression of tonicgtdominant dominantgttonic.
  Not always obvious because of hierarchical
  elaboration, but identified by reductive
  analysis.
• Form of sonata also illustrates creation and
  dispelling of tension (expositiongtdevelopmentgtreca
  pitulation/coda).

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CONSONANCE DISSONANCE

• Most dissonant pure tones are those close but
  discriminable (just less than a semi-tone).
• Instruments and voices produce complex tones
  (overtones in addition to the fundamental). When
  frequency ratio between two notes is simple the
  overtones blend better.
• Simplest ratio is octave (12) - consonant in all
  cultures. Others are fifth (23), fourth (34),
  sixth (35), major third (45) and minor third
  (56).
• Less harmonious semitone (pair of notes adjacent
  on keyboard) and tritone (six semitones apart),
  both double figure ratios. Tritone was dubbed
  diabolus in musica by medieval church musicians
  tolerated today (with resolution).
• History of musical taste is that of increasing
  amount of dissonance prior to resolution
  (yielding progressively greater thrills). This
  depends upon cultural learning.

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KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Keys are related according to number of notes in
  common. New scales based on top half of previous
  scale, need added sharps. New scales using bottom
  half require flats. Each can only be done six
  times before convergence with scales from the
  opposite direction (hence key circle).
• Belief that certain keys naturally evoke
  particular emotions not well-founded (except for
  major vs minor). Composers did use certain keys
  for certain purposes (e.g. pastoral, military)
  but todays A (440Hz) is more than a semitone
  higher than 1820 thus key qualities not
  inherent.
• Relative keys do have impact. Shifting key is
  used to create tension, and some composers
  (Gluck, Weber, Wagner) used keys to represent
  certain emotions in a consistent way (e.g. C
  salvation, G love, D passion, A anxiety, E
  loss.) Thus emotions can be mixed out of keys,
  like orange is mixed out of yellow red.

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PROPHECIES IN THE BRAIN

• Music generates expectations that are sometimes
  violated. Total predictability is dull too
  little is disturbing. Musical pleasure is gained
  when brain is engaged in seeking structure but
  not overtaxed.
• Optimal uncertainty theory explains why enjoyment
  increases with familiarity up to a point then
  declines, why complex compositions can be heard
  more often before over-familiarity occurs, and
  why music gets more complex through history
  (later composers break earlier established
  rules).
• Explains individual preferences younger people,
  sensation-seekers, high IQ, tolerate greater
  complexity.
• Music is used to adjust information load, e.g.
  tuning car radio to stimulating music when bored
  placid music when stressed.

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THE MOZART EFFECT

• Studies in 1990s suggested that listening to
  Mozart increases performance on spatial reasoning
  tests.
• Since then, several replications have failed and
  questions have arisen. Does it have to be Mozart?
  Does it have to be classical? Does the listener
  have to enjoy it? None of these really answered.
• But other interesting results reported
• (1) Epileptics had less severe seizures with
  Mozart than with pop music or silence.
• (2) MRI scans showed cerebral cortex more widely
  activated by Mozart than pop music or even
  Beethoven.
• (3) Long-term science learning of hyperactive
  children improved with classical music in
  background apparently due to falls in stress
  levels.
• (4) Early keyboard training enhances creativity
  IQ perhaps helping to build neural networks
  used later for problem solving.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Wilson, G.D. Psychology for Performing Artists
  (2nd Edition). London, Whurr/Wiley, 2002. (Most
  other references may be found here.)
• Huron, D. Music-evoked frissons. International
  Symposium on Music and the Brain, Stanford Univ.,
  2008.
• Sarkamo, T. et al. Music listening enhances
  cognitive recovery and mood after middle cerebral
  artery stroke. Brain, 2008, 131, 866-876.