Rythm
A while ago Jeff and I were having a discussion about music and how it creates such a powerful emotional response. We could not come up with any theories whatsoever as to why it has such emotional potential.
Ta-ra!~ Theory girl cometh!
I hypothesize, and plan to look into at some point, not tonight cause it's late - that hearing is one of our first senses. Actually it probably is our fourth sense, nyah, but smell isn't very strong and taste is very specific. So, I think that music, at least in some cases, taps into very early memories, ones that we don't remember consiously, but are embedded in our subconsious. For example, I think when we hear a rythm that sounds like our mother's heart beat when we were in the womb, we get soothed, comforted, relaxed. We feel safe.
Comments, any one?
posted by Tick-Tick @ 11:45 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
The jarring rhythm in Stravinsky's "Rights of Spring" would be a good bit of evidence for this. Rhythm is only one part of music, though. What about discordant intervals? It can't be all innate/learned at a very early age; different cultures have completely different tuning systems. The Pythagorean tuning system has 12 notes per octave, but I think some Indian systems have around 50 per octave.
I'm not saying for all of it. Just some small explanation.
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