JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE Volume 92 January 1 999

The enigma of music

Anthony Storr FRCP FRCPsych

J R Soc Med 1 999;92:28-34 SECTION OF THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE, 7 OCTOBER 1999

Hf

U- There is no obvious reason for the existence of music.

Music is not easily perceived as biologically adaptive: it does
of singers; but ancient Greek choruses danced as well as
sang. The ban on movement which we impose on concert
not feed us, or protect us against danger, or prolong our audiences is highly artificial. People who conduct imaginary
lives. Some might argue that music, together with a good orchestras when they are playing records may look silly, but
dinner and dimmed lights, is an aid to seduction and may are behaving perfectly naturally. Perhaps someone has
therefore lead to reproduction; but this seems a rather studied the physiological responses of people who are
roundabout way for Nature to promote the selfish gene. So enthralled by a novel, or thrilled by a beautiful picture. My
music remains an evolutionary puzzle. guess is that music causes more physical arousal than either.
We are so accustomed to hearing music-some would Neither reading Jane Austen nor looking at a Rembrandt
say far too accustomed that we take its existence for makes one want to dance.
granted. Music accompanies nearly all our ceremonial I said that music makes a whole group of people feel the
occasions-weddings, funerals, coronations, triumphs, same emotions simultaneously. Anyone who has played in
displays of military strength, and religious services. Music an orchestra or sung in a choir knows that taking part in a
also precedes stage performances and is an integral part of collective musical endeavour enhances group feelings of
moving pictures. Imagine a love scene in a film without fellowship. It is no surprise to me that John Blacking, who
music; even the old silent films always had a pianist. Indeed, studied the music of the Venda people of the Northern
if music is not there when we feel it ought to be, the effect Transvaal, concluded that their national dance, tshikona, was
is depressing. My friend Roger Brown of Harvard told me a vitally important tribal activity, reinforcing group bonds
that his first actual view of the Grand Canyon disappointed by involving large numbers of people in shared experiences.
him. He could not think why until he realized that, when he It is also musically complex, requiring at least twenty
had seen it on the cinema screen, this majestic sight had players of differently tuned pipes to coordinate their
always been accompanied with music. playing, together with at least four women playing different
I want to start by making three points about music. drums in 'polyrhythmic harmony.' The Venda believe that
First, the obvious one that music has the power to influence music is essential for the very survival of man's humanity; a
our emotions and moods. Second, that on public occasions, belief that John Blacking came to share. For most of its
music tends to make a whole group of people feel the same history, music has been predominantly a group activity
emotions simultaneously. Third, and this is more puzzling, accompanying communal ceremonies. Listening to instru-
we seem to need the stimulus of music to arouse our mental music in a concert hall has only been an important
emotions, even when the occasion is itself emotive. part of musical life since the latter part of the seventeenth
century.
MUSIC AND THE EMOTIONS
But why do we have to have music to underline our
emotions? When a great man dies, the funeral procession
We do not know exactly why music touches our emotions, would be incomplete without Chopin's Funeral March or the
but we do know a little about how it does so. Music is slow movement of the Eroica, or Siegfried's Funeral March
intensely physical. It has effects upon our physiology which from G6tterddmmerung; but why are such emotional
can be recorded and measured. Music causes arousal-that reinforcements required? Are not such occasions moving
is, it can raise the pulse-rate, alter the respiratory rate, enough in their own right? And, is opera really necessary?
dilate the pupil, alter the galvanic skin response and increase Plays without music can be deeply moving; but music can
muscular tone. transform a trivial libretto and a silly story into something
The natural human response to music is some kind of significant.
physical movement. The electromyograph shows that the A probable reason is that, in our day-to-day lives, our
leg muscles of concert audiences are tensed up, ready for deepest emotions become somewhat inaccessible to us. A
action which of course they are not allowed to take. Small great deal of our highly successful adaptation as a species
children find it difficult to sing without moving their hands depends upon our being able to suppress or repress
and feet. We think of a choir or chorus as a selected group immediate emotional responses. This is also part of
growing-up. The human child has to learn to control rage,
28 45 Chalfont Road, Oxford OX2 6TJ, UK grief and other powerful emotions, including uninhibited
 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE Volume 92 J an uary 1 999

joy. Instead of responding to incoming stimuli with reflex anaesthetic agent; two-thirds of left-handed people behave
or instant action, adult human beings have the power to similarly. If the right hemisphere of the brain is
inhibit action, reflect, make choices, weigh alternatives. In anaesthetized, the subject can speak normally but cannot
other words, we think ... sing. People who have suffered damage to the left
Housman wrote: hemisphere of the brain may lose their capacity to
understand or make use of language, but may retain their
But men at whiles are sober memory for music or even their ability to compose new
And think by fits and starts, music. Although language seems to be understood by both
And if they think, they fasten hemispheres to some extent, the formulation of thoughts in
Their hands upon their hearts. words, creation of new sentences, performance of logical
Perhaps we need not be quite so gloomy as Housman analysis, and deliberate planning are activities requiring an
about thinking, which has its pleasures as well as its pains; intact left hemisphere. Philosophers cannot do their work
but there is a sense in which thinking is inimical to that without a properly functioning left hemisphere: composers
emotional release which Housman longed for but could not sometimes can.
find. One of his biographers says that, although Housman There is plenty of evidence to show that language is
had enjoyed some serious music when he was a child, he predominantly processed in the left hemisphere, whilst
later avoided it because of his underlying melancholy. Had I music is chiefly scanned and appreciated in the right
been treating him, I should certainly have recommended hemisphere. However, the right hemisphere of the brain
that he sought music out again. Think of that wonderful aria also plays a part in speech. Children who have damage to
from Handel's Rodelinda, 'Art thou troubled? Music will the right hemisphere may be competent at reading, but may
calm thee.' Music is a powerful antidepressant. There are speak in such monotonous inexpressive tones that they are
even instances of music preventing suicide. unable to convey anything to a listener of what they are
actually feeling. If speech is to be a meaningful
communication between people, it must exhibit what
MUSIC AND WORDS linguistic specialists call 'prosodic features'. That is, there
Much thinking, though not all, goes on in words. The lady must be variations in pitch, loudness, speed, and rhythm
who asked 'How do I know what I think till I hear what I which underline or make manifest the meaning the speaker
say?' expressed a partial truth. The evolution of intelligence wants to convey. Of course, such prosodic features could
could not have occurred unless human beings had developed also be described as musical. Pitch, loudness, speed, and
both the capacity to postpone immediate responses and also rhythm are all features of music. In Moliere's play Le
the power to clothe their hesitations and deliberations in Bourgeois Gentilhomme, M Jourdain exclaims 'Good heavens!
words. for more than forty years I have been speaking prose
The relation between music and words is intriguing. without knowing it'. Many people will be equally
Charles Rosen claims that, until the middle of the astonished to find they have been speaking music without
eighteenth century, public music was still principally tied knowing it. As one might expect, the appreciation of non-
to words. Although purely instrumental music was played verbal aspects of communication, which include pitch,
in public, much of it took the form of preludes to, or intensity, sequence, and rhythm is located in the right
interludes between, the acts of operas and oratorios, or hemisphere.
consisted of dance music. The music which really mattered
was either religious or operatic. The development of what
has been called absolute music, divorced from any THE LEFT HEMISPHERE
association with words, is a comparatively late phenomenon I said that philosophers cannot function without an intact
in human history. So is the development of scientific and left hemisphere. In fact, man's greatest intellectual
philosophical language, in which words are used as achievements depend upon abstraction; upon being able
abstractly as possible. to play with concepts without the intrusion of other people
Language is one of the cardinal features distinguishing or of the thinker's own emotions. Einstein defined thinking
man from other primates. For reasons which we do not as 'playing with concepts'. Because we do not react
fully understand, the development of the capacity for instantly to each incoming stimulus, we are able to build up
language has required increased hemispheric specialization a memory bank of different possible responses from which
in the brain. Although there remains some overlap, the left we can choose, or which we can combine in new ways.
hemisphere of the brain is predominantly concerned with Mathematics, science, and philosophy all require the
language. 95% of right-handed people stop speaking when original thinker to solve problems or formulate new ideas
the left hemisphere of the brain is injected with an within the closed confines of his own mind before they can 29
 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE Volume 92 January 1999

be passed on. In so far as thinking takes place in words Rousseau suggested that men first used language to
rather than in visual images, it is an internal dialogue in express their passions, and considered that, at the early
which the thinker uses language to communicate with stages of human society, languages were melodic and poetic
himself rather than with others. rather than prosaic and practical. In his Essay on the Origin of
Western education emphasizes the skills of the left Languages, he writes:
hemisphere. The intellectuals whom we admire are experts
in conceptual, logical thought and in the perception and 'Man did not begin by reasoning but by feeling ... At
criticism of detail. They use language with precision, and first men spoke only poetry; only much later did it occur
shun metaphor and the evocative language used by poets. to anyone to reason2.'
How we evaluate what they have to say chiefly depends
Rousseau speculates that, had man's first language
upon what they write, not upon the spoken word. Writing
systems were invented only about six thousand years ago; so
survived, it would have consisted of a great variety of
sounds, interspersed with only a few consonants.
writing is a comparatively recent means of communication
between human beings. The prosodic features of pitch, 'It would neglect grammatical analogy in favor of the
volume, and speed are not part of written language, euphony, variety, harmony and beauty of sounds ... As
although rhythm can often be discerned in prose. So most of enlightenment spreads, the character of language
the musical features which are part of ordinary speech are changes; it becomes more precise and less passionate;
absent. it substitutes ideas for sentiments; it no longer speaks to
The language employed by philosophers and scientists is the heart but to the reason . .. language becomes more
as far from music as language can get, but we nevertheless exact and clear, but more sluggish, subdued, and cold.1'
prefer and are able better to recall prose which has some
residual musical qualities even when such prose is A little earlier than Rousseau, Vico of Naples had
intended to appeal to our intellects rather than to our suggested that poetry came before prose, that the
feelings. There are a few philosophers who write such good metaphorical use of language preceded the literal or
prose that it could almost be called musical: amongst them scientific, that song is earlier than spoken speech, and that
are Bertrand Russell, Peter Strawson, and Isaiah Berlin. But men may have danced before they could walk. Vico also
others, who shall be nameless, write prose which is so pointed out that metaphorical speech is not an artefact of
opaque that subsequent scholars spend whole lifetimes poets but a natural way of describing the world before the
trying to discern its meaning. I am inclined to think that rise of science and abstract language. The magnet loves iron is
writers of this kind have no music in themselves, and to not a scientific description but a naturally anthropomorphic
agree with Shakespeare in thinking that such men should not way of speaking. Many of the descriptive terms we use of
be trusted. the world about us are derived from our experience of our
However, whether the language used is clear or not, the own bodies; for instance, the mouth of a river, the bowels of
thinkers of the Western world usually aim at precision, at the earth, the weeping willow, or the whistling wind.
internal consistency, at expressing truths which they hope Throughout most of human history, music and words
will be perceived as objective. Intellectual excellence have been more closely linked than they necessarily are
requires this use of language, and the great human today. The Greek word /1OVcIKq is untranslatable, signifying
achievements in science and philosophy could not have music and poetry in one. The ancient Greek verse line was a
happened unless the two hemispheres of the brain had linguistic and musical unity in which the musical-rhythmic
become specialized and unless language had become largely structure was determined by the language, and accents were
separated from its emotional accompaniments that is, determined by pitch, rather than by intensity. Ancient
divorced from its prosodic, musical components. Greek poetry is thought to have sounded something like
plainsong. Thrasybulos Georgiades, in his book Music and
Language, suggests that the original unity of POvUIK1
POETRY AND MUSIC gradually became divided into music and prose; and that
These uses of language are late developments in the history poetry, as we know it, only came into being after prose had
of mankind. John Blacking states that there is evidence that been established. There is a fluctuating relationship between
the prehistoric ancestors of modern man were able to dance words and music and between language and prosody which
and sing long before Homo sapiens sapiens emerged with the is historically variable, highly complex, and insufficiently
capacity for speech as we know it. Most human beings have understood; but my guess is that absolute music, music
never used language to discuss abstractions, but have used unconnected with words, was a response to the develop-
speech as social beings, to express their wants, and to share ment of language that was separated from its emotional
30 their emotional experiences. components.
 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE Volume 92 January 1 999

Wagner warmly accepted the idea that music and greater than normal range of pitch, a rising final intonation
language had, in earlier times, been more closely on imperatives, and a tendency to lengthen words and add
integrated, and in his own music drama attempted a new stresses to them. It is easy to recognize when an adult is
reconciliation of poetry and music. He believed that both talking to a baby, even if the conversation is overheard rather
poetry and music had been attenuated by their separation, than directly witnessed. Parents who try not to use baby talk
and that the only way forward was a return to the past, to a do not succeed; this register is automatically employed and
state in which the poet and the musician mostly beyond conscious control.
Darwin thought that music arose from an elaboration of
tare one and the same thing, where each of them knows mating calls; but I am more inclined to think that it is an
and feels what the other knows and feels. The poet elaboration of mother-infant vocal exchanges. The coos and
becomes a composer and the composer a poet: they now hums with which mothers address their infants serve to
both combine to make up the complete artistic man2.' foster attachment by strengthening the emotional bond
between them. As I have already indicated, music, both in
MEMORY preliterate cultures and in our own, increases group
What is certain is that music aids memory. Many of us solidarity by synchronizing physical responses in different
remember the words of songs more easily than we individuals. On a smaller scale, this is what humming,
remember prose. Some scholars believe that, in preliterate cooing, and later singing nursery rhymes do between
cultures, music provides a mnemonic framework for storing mother and infant. Baby talk is closer to the sounds of music
the traditions of the culture. Songs and poems are better than ordinary speech.
preservatives than prose because they are better remem- Is music itself a kind of language? The composer Percy
bered. It is noteworthy that, when words and music are Grainger thought that music could become a universal
closely associated, as in songs, both are lodged in the right language of the future; a vehicle for world peace and the
hemisphere of the brain. In cases of lesions of the left unification of mankind. Leonard Bernstein came close to the
hemisphere, the only words to which the sufferer has access same idea when he claimed that there is a universal musical
may be the words of songs. syntax, based on the harmonic series. I wish I could agree,
Experimental psychologists try to describe human beings but the facts oppose such utopian fantasies. Even within a
in scientific language, but direct communication between single culture, most listeners appreciate only a small range
people is not a scientific activity. If I treated you as a billiard of music in the case of Western classical music, perhaps
ball governed only by external forces, or even as a from the sixteenth century to the present day. The number
laboratory animal, I should not be able to communicate of people who really understand the musics of other
with you. Moreover, the language which we both use when cultures is very small. It took John Blacking over two years
we mutually communicate must exhibit those prosodic, of living with the Venda to discover the meanings of their
musical features to which I referred earlier or our music. There may be as many musics as there are languages,
understanding of each other will be greatly impaired. and some are as different from Western music as is Finnish
or Indonesian from English. It is quite possible that there
are deep structures linking different varieties of music just
WORDLESS COMMUNICATION as Chomsky claims that there are in language. But that does
Do we have to use words to communicate with each other? not make it easier to speak or understand a language with
Obviously, we must do so if we, as adults, are to convey which one is unfamiliar.
information or become friends who know each other well. When God grew angry with the presumption of men
But not all communication requires words. Lovers who tried to build a tower which would reach to heaven,
communicate by touch; and though they usually employ He said
speech as well, they can achieve intimacy without speech.
Mothers use words when they address their babies, but what 'Go to, let us go down, and there confound their
the baby responds to is the tone of the mother's voice, not language, that they may not understand one another's
her verbal meanings. Playing with a small child who has not speech.'
yet acquired much language may involve chuckles, grunts,
and other exclamations which express shared experience, thus putting an end to their cooperative building project. I
but which do not involve the use of words. All adults, and think God included music when He created Babel. Karl
even children as young as three or four years old, speak to Barth said that when the angels play music to God, they play
babies in a special register which has been studied by Bach; but that when they play to each other, they play
linguistic psychologists. The prosodic features of this register Mozart, and God eavesdrops. But it is surely presumptuous
include a higher than normal fundamental frequency, a to assume that the music of Heaven is necessarily in the 31
 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE Volume 92 January 1999

Western classical tradition. Just think if it were rock. That Stravinsky was a master of lucidity, and his passionate
possibility must have occurred to the dying man whose desire for order manifested itself not only in his music but
famous last words were: in his work-room. One observer described Stravinsky's
writing desk as resembling the instrument case of a surgeon,
'Oh, I do hope there won't be music!' with coloured inks, rulers, erasers, and pen-knives taking
the place of an array of forceps and scalpels. Stravinsky's
scores were so meticulous that his biographer, Eric Walter
White, described them as inhuman.
STRUCTURE
Rossini's bedroom, in which he composed, was as
From what I have said you might conclude that I regard orderly as Stravinsky's study, and Rossini took equal pains
music merely as emotional stuff which has become with his scores. When a visitor showed surprise at his
suppressed because of the development of left hemisphere passion for neatness Rossini replied in typical fashion, 'Eh,
functions. This is far from being the case. Great music is not my dear fellow, order is wealth'. Like many people with
a warm emotional bath into which we gratefully sink after a obsessional traits of personality, including Freud, Rossini
hard day's thinking. The structure of music is just as was superstitious about numbers. He suffered from
important as its power to cause physiological arousal. zpl1UKC1KJX0a1Of that is, fear of the number 13. In
Perception of structure is not confined to trained musicians. addition, he was frightened of Fridays. He died on Friday 13
Amateur listeners who may not be able to read music are November 1868.
aware of repetition, change of key, recapitulation and final The dichotomy of form versus content, intellect versus
resolution, even if they cannot express their perceptions in emotion, left hemisphere versus right hemisphere is
technical language. Some critics give the impression that simplistic and inaccurate, not only because the functions
perception of musical form is an intellectual exercise of the two hemispheres overlap, but also because it leaves
divorced from human emotions. These are the scholars who out of account the fact that appreciation of form engages
spend their time examining scores without ever playing or our feelings. When we listen to Haydn, our pleasure is
listening to music. I think such critics are as old-fashioned as partly determined by our recognition of his inventive
those structuralists in literature who try to persuade us that ingenuity. The unexpected twists and turns which he
all that matters is 'the text', divorced both from history and applies to well-established musical forms like first-move-
from the personality of the writer. Of course it is possible ment sonata form or the minuet give us endless delight. It is
to separate emotional content from the structure in which the same kind of pleasure which we gain from architecture
it is expressed. 'Too long for its material', or 'failure to or from mathematics. We may be swept off our feet by
develop a theme adequately' are both common types of Dionysus, but we also worship Apollo.
criticism; and both statements imply that form and content Composers who write absolute music, that is, music
in musical works are separable entities. But this kind of divorced from words, are creating abstract patterns of tones
criticism chiefly applies to lesser pieces of music rather than which have no obvious relationship with either the external
to masterpieces. In the greatest works of music, form and world or, at first sight, the contents of our minds. Musical
content are inseparable. One of the tests of what constitutes tones are themselves derivations from Nature rather than
a masterpiece is that we cannot conceive that it could be natural phenomena. We talk loosely of the music of brooks
other than it is. and waterfalls; but Nature presents us with very few sounds
I believe that appreciation of structure engages our of definable, constant pitch. Even bird-song is only distantly
feelings as well as our intellects. Nietzsche described that related to human music. Why should we be enthralled by
dichotomy of two opposing principles associated respec- the patterns of artefacts which constitute the structure of
tively with Dionysus and Apollo. Dionysus is the god of musical works?
liberation, of intoxication, of orgiastic celebration: Apollo is This question can only be answered by considering one
the god of order, measure, number, and the control of of the peculiarities of our species. Man is less governed by
unruly passions. Stravinsky, describing how the composer what used to be called 'instinct' than any other animal.
sets about this task, writes: Creatures lower down the evolutionary scale behave in
rigid, stereotyped ways which, provided the environment
'What is important for the lucid ordering of the work- remains constant, ensure that they are as closely adapted to
for its crystallization is that all the Dionysian elements the external world as a key is to a lock. There are of course
which set the imagination of the artist in motion and reflexes and built-in responses which determine some part
make the life-sap rise must be properly subjugated before of human behaviour; but what we do and how we relate to
they intoxicate us, and must finally be made to submit to the world is far more dependent upon learning than it is

32 the law: Apollo demands it3.' upon inherited blueprints. This gives us flexibility, and
 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE Vo u me 92 January 1999

allows us to adapt to a wide variety of environments; but it EDUCATION

is flexibility bought at the price of never being perfectly Let me end with some thoughts on music in the education
adapted. of children. The Greeks believed that music was a powerful
Man's adaptation, paradoxically, is through lack of instrument of education: the philistines who decide the
adaptation. It is this which has stimulated our imagination British school curriculum treat music as an extra. If cuts are
and our inventiveness. Western man is never entirely at made, music is the first subject to be axed.
ease in the world; he is always asking for more, always
seeking new and better ways of mastering the environment, 'Plato, in the Protagoras, refers to music-teachers who
new and better sources of happiness. Because we are not teach boys the compositions of other good melic poets,
governed by in-built patterns, we have to make our own matching them to the lyre music, and they make the
patterns out of the multiplicity of stimuli which constantly rhythms and X'pp/OVlXl settle in the boys' souls so that they
impinge upon us. Isaiah Berlin tells us that the eighteenth may be less wild and, through being better rhymed and
century philosopher J G Herder believed that the creation attuned, good at speaking and in action; for a man's
of integrated wholes out of discrete data was the whole life calls for good rhythm and good attunement4.'
fundamental organizing activity of human nature. I am sure
that Herder was right.
In The Republic, Plato reports Socrates as saying:
The perception of connections and the making of new
patterns are continuous mental activities which go on even
during sleep. Gestalt perception is unavoidable. We cannot 'And therefore, I said, Glaucon, musical training is a
see three dots without making them into a triangle. The more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm
scientist who links together hitherto unrelated phenomena and harmony find their way into the inward places of the
by means of a new hypothesis is creating a new pattern; and soul, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is
if it turns out to be a hypothesis which is confirmed by rightly educated graceful .' .

experiment he cries 'Eureka!'

The pleasure which the scientist experiences is not I believe that Plato right. There is in fact some
was

simply a matter of professional pride or a hope that his evidence which supports him. A study of New York
discovery may benefit mankind or lead to his own worldly children aged between two and six who had played in
advancement: it is a pleasure shared by anyone who solves a Alexander Blackman's Orchestra claimed that the children
problem, dispels a mystery, or perceives a connection who had had this opportunity were well ahead of their
between things of which he had not previously been aware. classmates when they entered school. Amongst the
The world is too big, too intrusive, and too much with us, responses to my book Music and the Mind is a letter from

so that we live in a permanent muddle. Anything which a teacher of music in a suburb of Rochester, New York

lessens our distress at being surrounded by chaos, or which State. He writes:

promotes our shaky sense of mastery, gives us pleasure.
Even the most abstract intellectual patterns engage our 'When I first taught, and often since, my colleagues
feelings. remarked that teaching music must be a joy because most
I want to make a distinction between feelings and of the kids that play are the brightest in school. Early on,
emotions here. Music and mathematics have often been I learned to say that I thought that it was probably the
compared, since both are concerned with making other way round which always elicited nervous laughs.
coherent patterns out of abstractions. The great That's still the case.'
mathematician G H Hardy insisted that the mathemati-
cian's patterns must be beautiful; and I have no doubt When he followed up the pupils of the school he found that
that, for those who understand mathematics, apprecia- performing music students achieve membership of the High
tion of mathematical ideas is just as much an exercise in School Honor Role at roughly three times the ratio of non-
aesthetics as is our appreciation of form in music. But performing students.
music affects us physically, which mathematics does not. I think that it is vitally important to provide adequate
Mathematics is Apollonian without being Dionysian. As facilities for children to learn and participate in music from
Darwin realized, a person's emotions cannot be said to an early age, and I welcome the introduction of the Suzuki
be aroused until his bodily frame is affected. The method of teaching stringed instruments to very young
patterns of mathematics and the patterns of music both children. The majority will not achieve professional
engage our feelings, but only music affects our standards; but the experience of learning an instrument
emotions. Each great work of music is a unique blend will not only enhance their pleasure in and understanding of
of the Apollonian with the Dionysian. music, but is also likely to benefit them in other ways. 33
 IJOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF MEDICINE Volume 92 January 1999

We underestimate the educative potential of music meaning. Because of our overvaluation of the word, we do
because its effects are hard to measure, and because it is not give equal importance to music. But I am quite sure that
non-verbal. We know that music has powerful coordinating participating in great music, or even simply listening to it,
effects upon bodily movement, enabling some partially not only brings pleasure but also deepens and enriches our
paralysed people to make movements which they cannot appreciation and understanding of life itself. Most of us have
otherwise accomplish. I believe that it also affects the mind. some difficulty in connecting the prose with the passion in
Plato wrote in the Timaeus: our lives, as E M Forster pointed out. Great works of music
show us that this reconciliation is not only possible, but life-
'All audible musical sound is given us for the sake of enhancing. This is one possible interpretation of Nietzsche's
harmony, which has motions akin to the orbits in our famous maxim:
soul, and which, as anyone who makes intelligent use of
the arts knows, is not to be used, as is commonly 'It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the
thought, to give irrational pleasure, but as a heaven-sent world are eternally justified7.'
ally in reducing to order and harmony any disharmony in
the revolutions within us. Rhythm, again, was given us Nietzsche perceived music as so significant that it could
from the same heavenly source to help us in the same make life worth living. He wrote that if only a few hundred
way; for most of us lack measure and grace6.' people of the next generation got what he did from music,
he anticipated an entirely new culture. Students who know
I learn from M L West's book Ancient Greek Music that nothing of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn are as
the Pythagoreans developed a science of musical psy- deprived as students who have never encountered
chotherapy using a daily programme of songs and pieces for Shakespeare, Keats, Johnson, or Tolstoy. We owe it to
the lyre which alerted them on rising in the morning, and our children to see that great music is an integral part of
then purged them of the day's cares and prepared them for their lives.
prophetic and agreeable dreams when they went to sleep.
I have already suggested that the musical write better REFERENCES
prose than the unmusical because they listen to the I Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Essay on the Origin of Languages, edited,
underlying prosodic elements of the words they employ: translated, and annotated by Victor Gourevitch, New York: Harper &
they consider how what they write would sound as well as Row, 1986
its appearance and meaning. Plato's idea that music 2 Quoted from Richard Wagner, Oper und Drama III, iv. In Fubini E. A
History of Music Aesthetics, translated by Michael Hatwell, London:
encourages order and harmony within the mind is being Macmillan, 1991: 324
confirmed by studies which suggest that music creates a 3 Igor Stravinsky, Poetics of Music, translated by Arthur Knoedel and Ingolf
unique level of coherence of electrical activity in separate Dahl, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1970: 80-1
parts of the brain. At the end of the twentieth century, we 4 Quoted in M L West, Ancient Greek Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
can claim that our insight into music almost equals that 1992: 248
displayed by the Greeks of the fifth century BC. 5 Plato, The Republic of Plato, 3rd edn, translated by Benjamin Jowett,
Book III. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1888:88
We take it for granted that encounters with the great
6 Plato, Timaeus and Critias, translated and introduced by Desmond Lee.
minds of the past through literature are a vital part of London: Penguin Books, 1977: 65
education, which may enable people to live lives which are 7 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner,
less trivial, less circumscribed, and more imbued with translated by Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage Books, 1967: 52

34