the sound of music

I recently emailed my sister saying that I could understand why music really means a lot to her. Like many people, she was listening to an old favorite of hers and the music triggered memories of here life. She said that those songs pulled her through some difficult times in her life and I agreed to having the same experience. Music can inspire and motivate, but how and why? Music triggers strong emotional responses in my sister, me and many other people, and I find that intriguing.
So I told my sister that’s the beautiful thing about others, their gifts can help us when we don’t even know it, in ways we may not understand. Sometimes in ways that are physically stimulating. Consider the way we hear:
1 Sound waves are collected by the outer ear and are funneled through the ear canal to the eardrum.
2 Sound waves cause the eardrum to vibrate. The tiny bones of the middle ear transmit and amplify the vibrations to the oval window of the inner ear.
3 Fluid in the inner ear stimulates nerve endings called hair cells.
4 Electrical impulses are sent from the hair cells along the auditory nerve to the brain.
Sound waves are actually transferred into nerve impulses! I would say that music is popular for that reason alone but the other senses also rely on the nervous system for transmitting information to the brain. The visual arts stimulate the eye and other things stimulate our sense of smell, touch and taste and that affects people emotionally too. For example, what does the smell of traditional Polish food do for someone raised in a home with a loving Polish mother, or why are road signs with important messages painted in reflective orange or yellow? Can you think of sensations that also elicit a response as powerful as the tearful response one may have from Chopin or Mozart? Have you ever seen or smelled something so repulsive that you feel nauseous? Would the gooey sensation of raw eggs make you vomit if you tried to eat them?
But sound and the sense of hearing are probably more strongly connected to the brain as a means of communication, so maybe it relates to a larger area of brain real estate than other senses and therefore music “means so much to us”. How much of the brain is used for language, which relies heavily on audible sensation? Add to that the meaning we place on words and the areas of the brain used for memory and interpretation of that language. When I first saw Chinese singers singing passionately I felt embarrassed for them because it didn’t make any sense to me, yet here were these people singing passionately and with great emotion because of the meaning placed on the arbitrary sounds of their native language. Those arbitrary sounds and their meanings can come from anywhere in the world and be as profound and moving. Undoubtedly those sounds and that music will inspire many, as Prince inspired my sister or Bowie inspired me or (musician’s name here) inspires (person’s name here).