Music

Patterns in the Psyche and in Sound

As you all know, I grew up in a home in which my mother played the piano every day. Her brother and my late cousin played more or less the same repertoire and in a very similar style. Both parents were also folk dancers, and I can remember going to festivals as early as four years of age. There were many milestones in the evolution of my understanding of music.

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At the Musée de l'Homme, there was a fascinating display of different cultural divisions of the octave. I went back to the museum every day for several days while visiting Paris en route to India in 1968. I was driving and had a shortwave radio installed in the Land Rover so was able to listen to music from almost anywhere in the world, but particularly in the countries along my route. The music in Italy was, of course, all very familiar and quite wonderful; but Greece was truly exciting. I loved the instruments, rhythms, melodies, and dancing. In Istanbul, there was a dramatic shift from “normal” to my ears to foreign. It goes without saying that the cuisine also changed and pushed my curiosity to new frontiers: yoghurt, lentils, and spices just increased in prominence the further East I got. So did the exotic rhythms and different instruments. People are generally very proud of their cultures and eager to share them with interested visitors to their countries. I attended numerous small family recitals as well as public performances. It was very clear that what is normal to my ears — and taste buds — is exotic to people of other ethnicities and vice versa. People clearly love their own cultures, and this was seen very easily by the deeply moved and enthusiastic audience in Bahrain.

Or, see the crowd’s reaction to this Israeli favorite.

Most of us have music preferences so nothing I could possibly post on this subject would knock your socks off, but what is interesting are the next two milestones in my personal journey.

I saw music therapy as it was used by a number of different practitioners with backgrounds as psychotherapists, professional musicians, massage therapists, and holistic healers of one variety or another. The question was how the therapy works. First, a distinction had to be made between sound therapy and music therapy. There are theories that different bodily tissues or organs respond to particular frequencies of sound. I have experienced sound therapy as a client, observed it with other clients, read numerous books on the subject, and have no doubt but that from the vantage point of science, there is something to explore; but, in the right hands, music therapy is really powerful.

Patterns play a very important role in the work of an astrologer. Every horoscope is different, and there is a sort of chemistry between planets that expresses in every major area of our lives, but not all patterns are active simultaneously. Some are in a state of latency but can be activated by resonance with a memory or event in Time and Space. Music also has patterns and magic occurs when a personal pattern is triggered by music. This is the basis for the awakening of dormant memories, and the ability to explore the landscape of the psyche. Think of music as the key to the lock. The rest is revealed by prompting the investigation of what normally is outside the realm of consciousness.

Once I started to write on this subject, back in the early 80s, I bought every book I could find on music and culture, music and psychology, music and the brain, and music as a trigger to memory. Unexpectedly, buried in the dozens and dozens of books, there were references dating back to Aristotle and perhaps earlier, to music as the shaper of civilization. There are many derivatives of such theories, one of the more popular ones in our present time being the arguments in favor of Verdi tuning, insisting that the current tuning is a Nazi conspiracy to undermine society. This is not probably straight fact, but there was no single standard for tuning, i.e., A=440Hz, until 1955. There are all kinds of erudite explanations for this decision, none of which seem to relate to Hitler’s minister of propaganda.

The voice has registers related to the larynx and when, for instance, if a tenor has to go from one register to the next to hit a high note, he might be in peril of screeching. So, I am not going to argue about 440 Hz vs 432 Hz tuning except to say that Verdi understood the voice and wrote music that can be sung with the voices people have. The end of the selection here is from Verdi, but it would be even more beautiful in 432 Hz tuning. In short, it doesn’t matter whether there was a conspiracy or an international agreement to standardize tuning, what matters is whether the voice handles the demands better at 432 Hz, and I will maintain that this would be the case, due to the larynx, not politics.

For the record, except for music with hints of pentatonic influences, I have never found pieces to be suggestive. If music sounds calamitous to the ears, the effect on the psyche may or may not have a similar impact. The unconscious seems to listen in unique ways that vary from moment to moment.

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Folks, I was unable to upgrade my computer. It was basically too old. I had to replace it and now have to install many programs and migrate data. I will be back to normal in another week or two. Please be patient! This particular post was written months ago but not sent. Consider it a token of my commitment to continue my Substack endeavor.

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