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Thu 4 Dec, 2003 08:43 am
Several years ago I read a brief article in Newsweek (can't find in now, sorry) that suggested that humans are genetically linked to music in some way. I might not have remembered, or even paid much attention to, the article had it not been for one comment that stayed with me.
We remember the lyrics to hundreds of songs. Some with intricate, nonsensical, and/or unmemorable words. We remember lyrics effortlessly. If we're not sure of a word or two, we make something up. How many poems do we commit to memory--with such ease? It's the music that gives us the words.
I don't know whether there's a music gene, but there's a music something in all of us.
What do you think?
I think that it's an incredible and wide subject: music and genes. How can one start to describe music?
Well, firstly, I'd consider how music aids the memory. One could suggest that, just as pictures aid some people's memories of words, as does music. Music is the joining point of the two sides of the brain, whereas (to some readers) poetry often only engages one. If one side of the brain can remember something (e.g. a picture of Calcium or, in this case, the music to a song) then it helps the other. In the days before printing, all poems were said in a sing-song fashion:
The millere was a stout carl for the nones,
Ful byg was he of brawn and eek of bones.
When one had to remember thousands of lines, it helped. I wonder why we make words up whilst recollecting a song but rarely while recollecting a poem...
Everyone's life has music... it's an absolutely amazing thing. I've met no one who dislikes it.
Related somewhat to this, did you ever hear of the music in the womb argument? Some professor had mothers play different types of music to their children in the womb, and most of them grew up liking that music...
All little children respond to music, they dance, clap thier hands and try to mimic the sounds without prodding or lessons.
Stroke victims who cannot speak can sing.
Music, singing is a pure expression of joy. It's virtually impossible to sing when distraut, sad or depressed without a positive change in your mood.