REACTIONS TO SOUND AND MUSIC

REACTIONS TO SOUND AND MUSIC

The French professor Emanuel Brigand (Universitè de Bourgogne) has done

experiments in which he is exposing persons to music. We do not need much,-

one note or chord may be enough. He has played short fragments of a piece of

music, down to a tenth of a second duration, for his test objects. The

persons were, in spite of that, capable of recognizing music and moods.

This observation is supported my Professor emeritus in psychology Alf

Gabrielsson at the University of Uppsala. He collected stories of the

strongest musical moments of thousand persons from 13 to 91 years of age.

Most of these experiences are attatched to living music,- the good

live-experiences. What kind of music is of less importance.

The most common reactions are joy, happiness – a feeling of being totally

engulfed,- to lose the sensation of time and space,- to lose control, being

surprised, touched and overwhelmed. And- a fraction of a second exposure may

be enough!

Explanations may be found in the “Handbook of Music and Emotion” that was

published by Oxford University Press last year.

Why does this happen? The music psychologists Patrik Juslin at University of

Uppsala and Daniel Västerfjäll at the University of Göteborg have collected

and interpreted research results within music psychology, neuroscience,

anthropology, psychology of recall, psychology of emotions and biology. All

this completed by own studies.

Juslin explains some of their findings in The German journal Die Zeit and

the Swedish magazine Forskning och Framsteg.:

Music, especially the rhythm, reaches the brain stem, the oldest element of

our processes of thought, often called the reptile brain. It reacts on

tones without engaging the consciousness, just like we stop and startle when

we hear a Bang! It makes our pulse increase when we hear fast and treble

notes, while slow rhythms and bass notes have a relaxing and calming effect.

The researchers claim that these emotions/feelings emerge already while in

the mother’s womb. The brainstem reacts to changes. These are very fast

reflexes in the central nervous system. So-called episodical remembrance

seems to play the most important role in this context. Music is associated

with the situation when we heard it for the first time, or we connect it

with special episodes.

One example is the well-known “oh dear, they are playing our song” which we

connect with the moment sparks flew between a pair that once were in love.

(And maybe still are?)

According to the researchers, we start creating such memories already at 3 –

4 years of age. But the most and strongest memories seem to originate from

the adolescent years or from early adulthood (15 – 25 years of age). In

this period appear most of the situations that mold our identity and our

taste of music.

Music creates more than memories. It invites to associations and starts the

fantasy flying out, usually within a cultural frame. Of all factors that

contribute to our emotional reactions to music, only the immediate reaction

in the brain-stem is dissociated from cultural influence, according to the

scientists. Everything else is a result of cultural influence and our own

personal experiences.

Sources: Die Zreit, Forskning & Framsteg, Behavioural and Brain Sciences.

By Olav Skille