That reference to "sad songs" and clinical depression was interesting, but I really think it depends on the baseline temperament of the individual.
There's a reason most people can only handle upbeat music and movies with happy endings. A lot of people simply aren't emotionally calibrated for the darker subtext of life. The shadows that offset the light.
One person's delicious and life-affirming melancholy is another's spiraling despair. Coltrane at his most free is complex ecstasy for me, but the musical equivalent of an extended drug cartel torture session for another.
One thing is clear though: toxic positivity in the face of suffering is contraindicated. You can't gloss over hard knocks.
And that's why music is so astounding: it gives shape to nebulous feeling in a way nothing else can. Except perhaps love. Or unbidden magic.
This is such a beautiful and deep essay. I’ve been researching this for long time and am in the middle of Levitin’s new book. Thanks again for the great writing.
This is excellent beyond excellent. I have a dear friend who provides music for hospitals. his biz has been very successful. I'm now 78 and the piano has entered my brain/body interface at so many levels I can't describe. It's pure enchantment, playing, practicing, learning new things every day.
A truly fascinatin̈g essay. Thanks. Intriguing facts, I never knew.
Recently, lost in the twilight zone of tick tock, my algorithm showed me some fascinating videos of the African clicking language speakers. One particular fellow did the most incredible animal sounds, and I wondered if that is how early men communicated what animal they saw or hunted, and whether or not they lured animals with those sounds.
But thing of them as singing their communications puts a whole different slant on it.
Terrific post. Oliver Sacks' book, "Musicophilia" is excellent in this realm.
Quick question: Does drumming count? My sense is it could be less than salubrious. I suspect a person can paradiddle into steep cognitive decline. Please advise.
Very good comments. I had to think for a minuter re: sad songs and depression. It does make total sense! I've always felt that sad songes have more feeling, therefor more comfortable to a depressed person. Music is being recognized for how powerful it is!
There is a reason the masters can perform even when the mind begins to fade. It is the resilience of memory.
In the practice room, we do not just memorize notes. We build a fortress of a handful of intertwined layers of memory: aural, tactile, muscle, visual, and analytical. Each provides a unique anchor, woven together so that the music is stored in the skin, the ear, and the intellect simultaneously. When one layer falters under pressure, another compensates. The physical intelligence of the fingertips or the internal architectural map of the harmony steps in to sustain the line.
True mastery is not just knowing the piece. It is the creation of these multiple, reinforcing layers until the music becomes an inevitability.
Bret, this is fascinating! I'll add that both song and storytelling are also empathy builders, letting us inhabit another person's experience from the inside out. And to your point about music evolving as memory's vessel, with the enslaved, it served both purposes at once, balm for unspeakable and vital information coded in spirituals that could be shared even while enslavers were near. "Wade in the Water" preserved knowledge across generations and served as survival instructions, sung without overseers understanding the real message. Music carried what couldn't be written and what was too dangerous to speak. Still does.
That reference to "sad songs" and clinical depression was interesting, but I really think it depends on the baseline temperament of the individual.
There's a reason most people can only handle upbeat music and movies with happy endings. A lot of people simply aren't emotionally calibrated for the darker subtext of life. The shadows that offset the light.
One person's delicious and life-affirming melancholy is another's spiraling despair. Coltrane at his most free is complex ecstasy for me, but the musical equivalent of an extended drug cartel torture session for another.
One thing is clear though: toxic positivity in the face of suffering is contraindicated. You can't gloss over hard knocks.
And that's why music is so astounding: it gives shape to nebulous feeling in a way nothing else can. Except perhaps love. Or unbidden magic.
This is such a beautiful and deep essay. I’ve been researching this for long time and am in the middle of Levitin’s new book. Thanks again for the great writing.
This is excellent beyond excellent. I have a dear friend who provides music for hospitals. his biz has been very successful. I'm now 78 and the piano has entered my brain/body interface at so many levels I can't describe. It's pure enchantment, playing, practicing, learning new things every day.
You are a young 78.
Thanks, Bret. As I age, the juke box inside me continues to play a widening variety of tunes, and long-forgotten lyrics just flow with ease. It's fun!
You never know when or why, a song from the past, sometimes the distant past, just pops in your head.
Incredible to see the science behind what we felt instinctually.
This is why I enjoy long walks in nature.
https://matthewdmorgan.substack.com/p/taking-the-long-road
A truly fascinatin̈g essay. Thanks. Intriguing facts, I never knew.
Recently, lost in the twilight zone of tick tock, my algorithm showed me some fascinating videos of the African clicking language speakers. One particular fellow did the most incredible animal sounds, and I wondered if that is how early men communicated what animal they saw or hunted, and whether or not they lured animals with those sounds.
But thing of them as singing their communications puts a whole different slant on it.
Terrific post. Oliver Sacks' book, "Musicophilia" is excellent in this realm.
Quick question: Does drumming count? My sense is it could be less than salubrious. I suspect a person can paradiddle into steep cognitive decline. Please advise.
The only cure for the paradiddle is the double paradiddle.
Obvious - wisdom revealed. Brilliant, Arthur!
Actually, it's the flama -cue that really challenges.
No, I mean the double flamadiddle. That's the one.
Very good comments. I had to think for a minuter re: sad songs and depression. It does make total sense! I've always felt that sad songes have more feeling, therefor more comfortable to a depressed person. Music is being recognized for how powerful it is!
There is a reason the masters can perform even when the mind begins to fade. It is the resilience of memory.
In the practice room, we do not just memorize notes. We build a fortress of a handful of intertwined layers of memory: aural, tactile, muscle, visual, and analytical. Each provides a unique anchor, woven together so that the music is stored in the skin, the ear, and the intellect simultaneously. When one layer falters under pressure, another compensates. The physical intelligence of the fingertips or the internal architectural map of the harmony steps in to sustain the line.
True mastery is not just knowing the piece. It is the creation of these multiple, reinforcing layers until the music becomes an inevitability.
Ah « mother says I was a dancer before I could walk
She says I began to sing long before I could talk »
🖤🎵🖤
Love music!🎶
Bret, this is fascinating! I'll add that both song and storytelling are also empathy builders, letting us inhabit another person's experience from the inside out. And to your point about music evolving as memory's vessel, with the enslaved, it served both purposes at once, balm for unspeakable and vital information coded in spirituals that could be shared even while enslavers were near. "Wade in the Water" preserved knowledge across generations and served as survival instructions, sung without overseers understanding the real message. Music carried what couldn't be written and what was too dangerous to speak. Still does.
What does it say about cRAP…