by Lauri Mitchell

Created on: December 28, 2008   Last Updated: January 18, 2009

HOW DOES MUSIC MOVE US?

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." So says Berthold Aeurbach, and I think few would disagree. Who among us have not turned to music to lift our spirits, create a mood, or relax us at the end of a hectic day? The list of reasons for listening to music is endless.

How does music move us? Why do so many find it a direct avenue to our emotions..perhaps, more so than the visual or literary arts? You might say that movies are just as effective, but have you noticed that the most riveting moments in movies usually are made so, in part, by the music? And, contrarily, that movies can be ruined by badly chosen music?

In examining this question, it might be helpful to consider the basic elements of music: melody, harmony and rhythm. All three are embedded in our everyday lives. When we speak, we speak in rhythm. Simply repeat that sentence, and you can hear the accents and delays on certain syllables. "When we SPEAK, we SPEAK in RHY-thm." (Capitals indicate accented syllables.) Try saying this, or any, sentence, with no stresses or delays, and you will sound like a robot.

There is even variation in pitch in spoken language, and when varied pitches are combined with rhythm, we have melody. When we speak English, our voices go up at the end of questions and down at the end of answers, and mix it up in between - even if only by one or two steps. In many Asian languages, pitch completely changes the meaning of a word. Spoken language is, in a word, melodic.

Harmony, which is the blending of two or more pitches simultaneously, occurs all around us: the background hum of florescent lights, traffic, conversations in another room, distant airplanes. So much is just beneath our awareness, that we are stunned by the silence we find when camping in the mountains.

So, these three elements, melody, harmony and rhythm, are intrinsic parts of our world. But they occur randomly. Humans need some degree of structure. It's built into our societies, our languages, and even our very thinking processes. Therefore, it would seem very natural that when these musical elements are combined into structured patterns, we would be affected by them. And music is, by definition, organized sound. Try playing random notes on a piano, and you'll find that out.

The next question is, are we affected differently by different styles of organization? The answer, of course, is "yes." Organization is what defines one style of music from another. Name any style of music

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