Animals, music and the mind

By -
According to James Randerson of the Guardian, "researchers have discovered that playing classical music to the animals reduces abnormal behaviours such as swaying, pacing and trunk tossing, although they said elephants don't seem to have a favourite composer." The point of the study was to improve the mental state of the animals in captivity. Mr Randerson's article goes on to site several other studies which offer suggestions that animals may be soothed by classical music but irritated by Heavy Metal.

Ok, link this to the recent bits I've been reading out of Oliver Sacks Musicophilia regarding the portion of the human brain that deals specifically with music. It seems there is an element of the brain that not only deals with music, but can become significantly larger (more developed) in professional musicians. This leads me to believe we are inherently pre-disposed to music and (without considering religious connotations, Sacks is a self proclaimed Atheistic Jew) it seems physically affected by music in more than just our mood.

I am not a doctor, let alone a neurosurgeon, so I don't know if the areas of the brain that are affected by music in humans are core elements to the brains of other animals - areas like, the corpus callosum, which connects the two hemispheres of the brain, or the auditory cortex. It seems, according to David Field, zoological director of London and Whipsnade zoos, "Elephants are incredibly sensitive beasts. Their appreciation of noise communication is far beyond our hearing range. They communicate in deep infrasonic vibrations." So, it is reasonable to suppose they may be predisposed to music at some level.

I also find it interesting these studies tend to use composers like Beethoven and Mozart as their basis for Classical music. What would be the effect if they played something like Webern, Schoenberg, Babbitt, Boulez or any of the more "radical" classical musicians; the ones that much of the modern audience has yet to appreciate. If we find animals do not much care for this avant-gard type music, perhaps we can summarize that maybe (just maybe) this music is less 'musical' than these composers would like us to believe - because our baser animal side of our brains just don't connect with it.

On the other hand, we could also suggest the avant-gard music is perhaps more elevated than what 'animals' can appreciate, thus separating ourselves from the animal kingdom, by virtue of our appreciation of a 'higher form' of music. But doesn't that smack of the divine creation of man, which might open a whole religious debate arguing for a number of composers who are also self-proclaimed atheists???

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Acclaimed Fauré Quartett returns to Deutsche Grammophon with their first recording of Brahms

By -
Image
The Fauré Quartett continues to add authoritative recordings to the chamber music catalog with their new recording of two Brahms quartets, available from Deutsche Grammophon on January 12, 2010. These large, some say symphonic, works test the limits of technical and musical capabilities, and the Fauré Quartett once again proves why they are one of the most acclaimed ensembles performing today. Within a short period of time the Fauré Quartett has conquered the great concert halls of London , Paris , Berlin , Amsterdam , Brussels , Geneva , Hamburg , Frankfurt, Milan , Buenos Aires , Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere. “They attract superlatives wherever they go,” wrote The Strad following a concert at London ’s Wigmore Hall, while the Süddeutsche Zeitung praised them for a performance that “brought tremendous pleasure by highlighting interpretative details that had scarcely ever been heard before”. The Fauré Quartett strives to achieve a unique sound for Brahms (as indeed for every work)
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more