Music therapy, metaphysics

Bruce: I had a feeling that others on the Tuning List were getting
restless over the discussions of metaphysics per se rather than
metaphysics as inspiration for music. Perhaps I was wrong; I have
no objection to the continuation of the discussion provided others
care to do so.

While music therapy has been around the European cultural area since
the time of the ancient Greeks, the claims have never been substantiated
beyond generalities. Slow, quiet music is calming, fast, loud music is
arousing or irritating, etc. While one's emotional state can presumably
have some effect on the immune system, stomach acidity, blood pressure,
I know of no studies in respected peer-reviewed journals showing music
therapy to be more effective than drugs, surgery, excercise, diet or
other treatment modalities.

I'm not at all sure that whatever effects there may be, except the
generalized ones mentioned above, carry across cultures. Ancient Greek
music was very unlike our own and underwent profound changes in the
600 or so years over which we have records. For example, the 4th and
earlier centuries prized the enharmonic genus above all others.In the
3rd century it became extinct save as an occasionally major third
pentatonic passage in an otherwise diatonic piece. A late writer
recorded that an amateur musician "vomited black bile" upon hearing an
enharmonic melody. Admittedly, black bile is associated with melancholia,
but therapy was not the point of the anecdote.

In any case, the Greek melodies we have do not exhibit the traits that
their ethoi say they should, nor do they affect contemporary listeners
in the prescribed way. More familiarly, I doubt that many westerners
are affected by Indian ragas the way Indians are or are sensitive
to the precise emotional nuances these modes evoke in Indians and
knowledgeable students of Indian music.

Anyway, I don't want to belabor my skepticism regarding the value of
music therapy, particularly for organic illness. I recall the late
Ivor Darreg once getting a phone call from an acquaintance who announced
that he had just discovered the ultimate laxative theme. Prudence or
good taste, alas, prevented Darreg from recording it, so it's been lost
to posterity.

Basically, I think music should be a treat rather than a treatment. I'm
willing to listen to good music on its own merits regardless of its
underlying metaphysics.

--John




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>I have noticed that sometimes yesterday's metaphysics have become
>reflections of "tomorrow's physics".
>There must be a better way to say that, which I'm sure someone will
>understand.

That strikes me as a perfectly good way to say it.

I suppose it's also worth pointing out, however, that a vastly greater
percentage of yesterday's metaphysics have become today's drivel (from a
strictly scientific perspective).

So we certainly have to be very cautious when we examine metaphysical
commentary.



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