The Power of Sound

Music

Even cave dwellers made music, perhaps by using stalactites as drums, or by creating a rasp (“Lost civilisations of the Stone Age” by Richard Rudgley). and music has been credited with hlping childbirth (Vivaldi), making children smarter (Mozart) and killing growing plants (Heavy metal). The last result was cited by Right wing religious extremists and appears not to have been a well conducted formal experiment. When Rock group Madness played in Hyde Park 20,000 people stamped their feet in unison and a building five miles away swayed in response. Soldiers have long known singing makes marching easier and a well known conductor claimed that had he been made to perform the actions he did while conducting but in silence he would have died. Music can bring about an altered almost mystical state of consciousness and is known to stimulate the parts of the brain that respond to sex and music. The latter discovery led scientists to proclaim the discovery that people use different types of music for different purposes, a discovery akin to the satirical finding that about half the married people in Britain were women (Gay marriage not being legal at the time)

Language and poetry

A Jewish man who spoke no German was listening to a recording of one of Hitler’ speeches, and ended, according to his words, uplifted and wanting to march with him, even knowing what Hitler was. Any good orator knows how to whip a crowd into a frenzy and the words are often less important than the rise and fall of the voice. A well known essay “The Neural Lyre” attributes the power of poetry to the fact natural metre matches a fundamental frequency in the brain and poets have been venerated reviled and persecuted at different times. Poetry is a medium of sound not words on the page and the effect of a poet reading their own work can be astounding. Poetry blends sound, meaning metre, and rhythm to create something that is more than the sum of its parts and at its best reaches past the conscious mind and grasps the unconscious firmly by the neck. Poetric prose, which uses the beat of poetry but may lack metre has a similar effect. Taken on their own the words of poem may seem meaningless but when read aloud they can pierce to the bone. Religious rituals use all these tricks, from the poetic lilt of the catholic mass to the whipping up of worshippers at a pentecontalist or similar service.

Sound and the Brain

Humans evolved in an environment where there ears saved their lives more often than did their eyes. Even today any cyclist knows the value of ears Many of the effects of sound described here can be traced back to evolutionary needs. Much of the power of sound beyond the level of Physics has a similar origin. Yet in the West at least sound is regarded as secondary to sight. Maybe it is time to reassess.