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Why music?

Saturday Apr 23, 2005

What is it about music that moves us so?

Often a course in the history of music will start with a discussion of a fetus hearing his/her mother’s heart beating as the first music they will ever hear. A simple rhythm; sixteenth note followed by a quarter tied to a sixteenth rest and repeat. Perhaps the tempo will change, but the rhythm of a healthy heart always stays the same.

We are musical creatures. It is why time both fascinates and regulates us. Life is a series of rhythms.

Have you ever watched a serious scene in a movie on mute or just without the music? Its amazing how much of the emotions of a scene are created and embellished through the soundtrack of the film. Music dictates the feeling the audience is to feel by directing the genre of a given moment in time.

In most cultures the most meaningful moments in life are laced with music. From marriages, to burials, to religious ceremony, to festivals and celebrations, music is the great unifier. To create music is to be intensely entwined in a moment and to hear music is to truly feel.

Music is the only art that has entire art dedicated to appreciating and savoring it. That art is of course dance. I have never really understood dance and I would hardly say that I enjoy watching others interpret song into motion. But I myself do enjoy feeling music through movement, embracing the rhythm – the backbone of song.

As a fan of theatre and more specifically musical theatre I can honestly say that some of the most powerful moments I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing involved intensely passionate songs. Singing is one of the most direct ways to interject emotions into words—and I am certain that such gave rise to the hilarious and intensely popular phrase ‘singing one’s heart out.’

So it is my conjecture that music is something so intensely passionate, personal, fun, and deeply routed inside of our rhythmic and emotional beings that we are virtually helpless in the wake of its power. People embrace music, define themselves by their tastes, tap our rhythms, sing in the shower, and dance in their cars.

What makes music so powerful is that it is a juxtaposition of time and emotions that hits us in the deepest part of our souls.