Isolation Diary: This post fits in this category because this thought occurred to me while I was returning home after picking up my on-line ordered bunch of groceries. I haven’t shopped in person for almost a year. I was listening to KUSC, that’s classical music. Bachianas Brasileiras #5 Aria by Villa-Lobos was played. Aria in this case by saxophone not voice. Still beautiful although I prefer the voice. In fact, for me this is one of the most beautiful melodies ever created. And I wondered, why do I experience it as beautiful? Each tone, and there are many elongated tones in the aria, is okay by itself. A tone. Fine. But then the next tone is added, and the next, and when does the melody become beautiful? And why do I perceive it as such? Is it math? The ratio between tones? I wonder if each tone has a subtle vibratory effect on the body. And beautiful music actually ‘feels’ harmonious and beautiful. Anybody have input on this?
John M.
Read the book This Is Your Brain on Music. Very moving and not a heavy read. There are physical and physiological reasons that certain sounds are soothing and others the opposite, and then there are the learned cultural associations.Danielle O.
I once attended an event where several Tibetan monks sang tones at suspended bowls of water, rice and sand and made them ripple and react in patterns. I see no reason why tones wouldn’t do the same to blood and flesh and skin. We’re mostly water.Curt B.
Yup. Music absolutely vibrates at frequencies that affect our physical world. They also can affect our brainwave patterns, which also resonate at certain frequencies. Similarly, a cat’s purr is a healing mechanism.Ruth Silveira
I am aware of the vibrations of the lower tones. The amped low base of some music causes instant hostility in me. I consider it a very personal invasion. I have gone so far, late at night, late and dark, to go out by myself to knock on the window of a car to get the attention of a guy parked outside my house doing I don’t know what and asking him to turn down his base. Not smart. But…..I was wondering about beauty. And why a melody might be more than just pleasing but called beautiful. I find that aria beautiful, I love listening to it. Why? And why do I call it ‘beautiful’? There is something about the arrangement of tones that feels so good to me. Why is that? Do any of you reading this respond to this aria similarly?
(No answer to that question.)