Why Music Matters

Music can rally armies – for good and evil; it can soothe the soul and recall tragedy. Music brings the touch of a higher presence – whether in our heightened consciousness or the feelings it inspires. Great music contains the power of transformation. To explore the boundaries of classical music is psychiatrist Ida Lichter’s mission in her new book The Secret Magic of Music: Conversations with Musical Masters. Over the best part of a decade, Lichter interviewed 41 of the world’s top classical musicians – as they see themselves, the custodians of our musical heritage and archive. To describe some of what she discovered, Ida Lichter addressed The Sydney Institute on Wednesday 29 June 2016.

WHY MUSIC MATTERS

IDA LICHTER

Ludwig van Beethoven said: “Music is higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy . . .the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.”

Or is music simply “auditory cheesecake”, enjoyed by the elite, as declared by Steven Pinker in his book Cheesecake For The Mind.

Clearly, they were both talking about Western classical music, also known as serious or art music. What did they mean? Why do some people hold Western music in high regard? Do we really need it? What is its social function? Although wide-ranging, these questions were not aimed at a comprehensive study of music. They were important to me as an amateur musician, passionate listener, and administrator of a music festival focused on chamber music, a genre for the most intimate thoughts and feelings of the great composers.

I decided to approach the questions through conversations with professional performing musicians, some Australian, but most of them international artists touring Australia as members of chamber music groups. We also discussed many other questions, including: is music transformative, a type of therapy, healing, spiritual experience, or political weapon? How does music work? Why do many people find contemporary classical music unpalatable?

I was also concerned with the future: if public money, increasingly in short supply, is to be spent on music, we need to know about its benefits.

The book presents my reflections on the interviews.

Music is clearly a vital part of most cultures as a non-verbal language of emotion. As classical, or art music of the West developed over time, it became central to Western culture and to some extent, an auditory recollection of social history.

The immense progress of this music depended on a particular development about 1000 years ago, when an Italian monk, Guido of Arezzo, invented modern musical notation. It was a revolutionary development, as it meant music could be written down and acquire complexity.

So what is going on in music? It is about an intersecting threesome: the composer, the performer and the listener, so I invite you to join me in the view from each. In the process, we should find some answers to the questions.

In the composer’s chair

Composers have tried to channel what it feels to be human into musical sounds, a process involving music theory, structure, aesthetics, and mathematics. They became adept at producing emotional transmission through tempo and rhythm, and especially through harmony and tension in chords. The tension in a dissonant chord followed by resolution produces a feeling of relief; a magical effect that tugs the listener emotionally.

If you stop on a certain chord in a piece by Bach, it could sound dissonant. At the same time, the discord lends considerable character and richness. Through this dissonance or “brokenness” in his music, Bach was reflecting on the death of Jesus, broken on a cross and symbol of Christianity.

Meaning can also be derived from musical structures such as sonata form or fugue that take themes and keys on a journey. Their homecoming generates a sense of inevitability and order, which holds equally true for a pop song or a Mahler symphony.

The listener’s journey can present a metaphor for life’s passage, starting with the despair in a theme, followed by its transmutation through many developments, until finally, when the theme returns, the listener is a little bit older and armed with more knowledge.

The philosophies and musical expression of many composers revolve around the nobility of human love and relationships, as well as wonderment and reverence for the natural world, but the great pieces are not easily categorised and contain secrets only divulged upon close scrutiny over many years.

If there is a message conveyed by the composer, it is usually conjectural, subtle and personal. It might portray a love letter, for example the second movement of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor is thought to be a love letter to Clara Wieck, wife of composer Robert Schumann. Some music contains a political message. When Stalin expected Shostakovich to convey strong sentiments of nationalism and victory in his Symphony No. 9, he defiantly scored it for a smaller orchestra, with mocking humour, and less melody and passion compared with his previous symphonies.

It seems that certain totalitarian regimes want to control music. During the Cultural Revolution in China, pro-communist songs and marches were allowed but Western classical music was severely restricted. The comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan often contain an overt political message, and subtle subversion of the social order has been ascribed to Mozart.

Occasionally, music aligns with political idealism. Verdi’s Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, “Va’ Pensiero”, from his opera Nabucco, became an Italian anthem for patriotic unification and freedom from foreign rule. Political ideas have been expressed in pop music, such as Bob Dylan’s songs that aroused young people who protested against the Vietnam War.

Composers have been able to give expression to the human struggle in accordance with their own personalities: Mozart tends to speak to the individual, whereas Beethoven talks to all mankind.

In his operas, Mozart portrayed complex human characteristics. Some of the dialogues and counterpoint in his late string quintets are somewhat reminiscent of his opera ensembles where several voices express individual themes of jealousy, bitterness, romance, and love, exposing some naked truths about human motivation and behaviour.

Beethoven’s music approaches our purpose on earth through its reflection of nature and intense awareness of values important to humanity: beauty, diversity, structure and complexity. Tension and relaxation in the music reflect the natural world in the flowers that open in the morning and close at night, the tightening and expansion of muscles, and the contrast of a storm followed by calm.

Beethoven also expresses contrast in the opposition of ugliness and beauty as a true mirror of life. The fugue section in the Hammerklavier Sonata is ugly but the slow second movement is a testament to loveliness and serenity. His music can attract some people almost like a drug, inducing a deep, spiritual, even transformational connection. Like eating a piece of chocolate or being in love, his music can lead to a state of mind when the whole world seems a better place. His house in Bonn is one of the city’s most popular tourist destinations, and there are usually fresh flowers on his grave in Vienna.

Due to its power and creativity, Beethoven’s music is often chosen to showcase diverse politics. When the Berlin Wall came down, the last movement of the Ninth Symphony was played, and the Fifth was often performed in Nazi Germany.

In contrast, Bach’s concerns were mainly celestial. He marked his music Soli Deo gloria (To God alone be the glory), and found his role models in the Temple musicians described in the Chronicles of the Bible. In Bach’s view, the offerings of Temple musicians had glorified God, who then favored them with His presence during their performance.

All music, whether Indigenous, African or European, is valid and full of emotion, but in the Western tradition, composers such as Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven have a special place.

What happened to contemporary classical music?

In the early twentieth century, harmonies became very complicated and dissonant with some notes in the chord only a semitone apart. This musical language was intelligible and fascinating among composers but unfamiliar, bewildering and ugly for many listeners. However, there is now a real desire by composers to reconnect with their audience, rather than impress their colleagues.

Certain ideologues have had an important influence on Western music. Since the mid-twentieth century, the concepts of music philosopher Theodor Adorno became influential. He delegitimised popular enjoyment of classical music, and claimed that only the radical, atonal variety was able to convey truth and hope, and act as a trigger for social protest and political change. This approach alienated many composers of new music from society, and fostered an elitism that assigned superior intellectual and social value to their works.

More recently, in his book What Good are the Arts? former Oxford English Professor John Carey attacked elitist views and made a case for relativism, reinforcing the notion that artistic judgment was relative and dependent upon individual taste.

In the performer’s chair

Most performing artists are convinced that a live audience is required for maximum inspiration and communication. A creative interface exists between performer and audience, involving a reciprocal transfer of emotions. Impromptu inventiveness can occur, encouraged by rapport between the two, and the electricity in a concert hall.

Occasionally, there is an exceptional moment. Referring to musicals, the composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim talked of the need for many laughs and a few moments to cry, along with one hyper moment when members of the audience are aware of a certain joy, or a feeling that they understand why they are there.

This magical effect defies explanation but the artist’s vision is probably an important contributing factor. Performers are stimulated by the power of imagination. For a singer, the mind paints the picture and the vocal mechanism responds to give the voice color. When the sound undergoes these changes, the audience reacts.

The four instruments of a string quartet portray multiple voices and feelings, reminiscent of four characters in an opera, when one is singing about her lost love, two are providing a commentary, and the other is doing the sweeping at the back of the stage! A high standard of quartet playing requires real virtuosity and intense involvement with complex and profound music. Mastering the dazzling cycle of Beethoven’s 16 string quartets represents a Holy Grail and lifetime’s work for many groups.

In the listener’s chair

Most of us are not entirely satisfied by the material world and its high-speed activity. Music has the potential to lift us out of that environment, enabling ecstasy and transcendence, and even when the music is disturbing and bleak, great works still retain a sanguine core.

For the audience, music works simultaneously on visceral and intellectual levels, and the former is immediate. However, a little exposure to the art is usually required. The celebrated pianist, Sviatoslav Richter, believed that good music and performance would always reach any listener. Russian musicologist, Mikhail Kazinik, tested this hypothesis by taking a group of ordinary schoolboys to a concert of Beethoven piano sonatas played by Richter. They responded by pronouncing the music boring and horrid. At a later time, Kazinik began teaching them a course on music, and when they got to the Beethoven sonatas, he played a recording of one they had heard at the concert. All the boys declared it was beautiful and were adamant it was not the same music they had heard Richter play.

For those who want to delve intellectually, there is abundant challenge, such as the polyphony in Bach, but even the seasoned audience doesn’t intellectualise a great deal and simply derives pleasure from the music.

More than other arts, music has the capacity to match one’s mood or change it. Many people who want to feel happy turn the radio on to easy listening and sing along or dance.

Re-experiencing a broad range and intensity of emotions in a safe, controlled environment does seem beneficial for listeners, and could be considered a form of therapy. Emotions in the music cover the full range from exhilaration to despair. They include love, jealousy, and anger, and as suggested by research data, even melancholic music can be beneficial. But journeys within great compositions are much more than entertainment, relaxation and simple comfort, and as with all art, we encounter confrontation, sorrow and loss. Music can also engender a sense of mastery. Beethoven in particular, can induce feelings of empowerment. There is a majestic, heroic strength in his music, particularly evident in the slow movements of the symphonies.

If a performance is convincing, it should trigger many personal associations, not only during a recital, but afterwards as well, if listeners are able to reminisce about the experience.

An audience can feel uplifted and transported to a high level of awareness, a meditative state, or existential contemplation, however such responses require active surrender to the music.

When the interaction between performer and audience is very powerful, listeners may glimpse magnificent, even ethereal beauty, yet the emotional impact of music is idiosyncratic and often depends on the listener’s state of mind.

Some music is well known for its cathartic power and emotional release. An oft-quoted example is Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 132, written after the composer had recovered from a serious illness. The third movement is marked “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart” (A Convalescent’s Holy Song of Thanksgiving to the Divinity, in the Lydian Mode). In this movement he expresses gratitude and perceptions of awe and beauty. Many performers and listeners have described how this work has stimulated powerful feelings associated with past losses, as well as relief and consolation.

Schubert’s music can take the listener through rage, melancholy and tranquility within minutes. Some of his most intense work is black, and speaks of despair, horror and death, not with the intention of adding darkness to people’s lives, but rather, articulating ideas and emotions difficult to express in words.

His superb Sonata in A Major D. 959 passes through a landscape of deep feelings. In the last movement, Schubert takes his time, as he always does, meandering to allow reflection. Finally, the end of the work approaches and he seems unable to let go. The theme has recurred throughout the last movement and the listener has come to know it as a close friend, but at the end, it is repeated with a slightly different harmony due to a semitone difference: an F natural instead of an F#. This tiny change is unsettling. It seems as if someone is trying to say goodbye to a friend but unable to part, craving just a little more time. Following the emotional turmoil of the journey, we come to this point of departure without resolution, and in typical Schubert fashion, we are left to resolve the separation later, in our own time. Beethoven employs similar elements, but unlike Schubert, he offers more answers.

Studies have shown that while listening to music, pleasurable feelings are linked to a variety of physical responses, including shivers, altered heart rate and breathing. There is evidence of an association with the activation of blood flow to regions of the brain that release the chemical dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in euphoria, motivation and addiction.

The three overlapping circles of a Venn diagram help explain how the emotional transmission is effected. One circle represents the composer’s creation and intention, the second one the artist’s interpretation, and the third, the participation of the audience. When the three combine to form the overlapping sweet spot in the middle, intense emotional transmission can be realised.

Memory for music is surprisingly well preserved and used therapeutically to stimulate mental capacity and communication in degenerative neurological conditions. The pianist Angela Hewitt related what happened one Easter Sunday when she played a hymn for the patients on an Alzheimer’s ward. To the amazement of staff and visitors, a man who had not spoken a word to anyone for two years suddenly began singing all the words. It seems that people with dementia may still relate to music – its retention being held in a different part of the brain than other forms of memory that are more susceptible to loss.

If consolation is considered part of therapy, then music is an important resource, not only in relation to personal traumas but also in the case of subjugated societies, such as those in the former Soviet Union. In the midst of oppression, many people found escape in music, and the conservatorium was an island of sanity for many musicians.

Before the Berlin Wall came down, music provided consolation and played a part in the East German protests. People were fearful of expressing dissent because the Stasi secret police spied on the population at large. It was the time of the Tiananmen Square protest and the Chinese government’s harsh response to calls for freedom. Many East Germans feared their government might turn on its own population in the same way. Despite these misgivings, small groups of East Germans began to protest after church services such as those at St. Thomas Church, where a regular Friday evening service usually included music by Bach. The music didn’t promote revolutionary fervor, but it did give people respite and strength.

Interestingly, the same sort of music had also been used for political propaganda in the early days of the German Democratic Republic, when the communist government extolled Bach’s music as a source of elevation and identity for the ascendant working class.

The group bonding through music described in East German churches is an example of audience experience in general. It was an essential part of religious worship in ancient temple services in Jerusalem and later in the Christian church. Today, the bonds formed between performers and audience, and members of the audience with each other, continue this long tradition.

Norwegian violinist Ole Böhn related an example of the power of music to promote group bonding. He plays an exquisite 1766 Guadagnini violin, acquired for his use by a Norwegian bank. After giving some thought to the way music could assist the bank in its work, he came up with the concept of short concerts associated with business meetings. During a break in discussions, he would arrive with his accompanist, talk briefly about the violin, and then play for ten to fifteen minutes. These mini concerts invariably broke the ice, initiated a change in the atmosphere and conversation, and somehow helped clarify problems and solutions. He also performed in New York during negotiations for Norway’s membership to the UN Security Council.

The psychological mechanism in group bonding may involve shared feelings of pleasure, connection, purpose, and trust. After a concert, there is also a social dimension, as relationships among members of the audience can alter and deepen, and people feel united in discussion and action. The physiological mechanism suggests stimulation of oxytocin, the hormone glue that binds lovers, and builds feelings of trust, happiness and benevolence.

Can music change behaviour? Perhaps not directly, but it can be enabling. Being an avid listener of classical music won’t make someone a better person. A Mozart enthusiast can still be a scoundrel, but perhaps people who immerse themselves in classical music tend to become more thoughtful, reflective, responsive, and attentive to others.

What are the some of the other benefits of Western art music?

There is some evidence for its healing effect. Studies have shown that daily sessions of music-guided slow breathing or live piano music can reduce blood pressure. Singing or instrumental music may assist in calming newborn babies, managing their pain during procedures, and improving weight gain. When a group of healthy premature babies were exposed to half an hour of Mozart on two consecutive days, their energy expenditure decreased compared with another group that didn’t hear the same music.

Music Therapy is an established part of the management in drug and alcohol

rehabilitation, intellectual and physical disabilities, mental illness, and in children’s hospitals.

The transformative potential of music was fundamental to violinist Yehudi Menuhin, who established ‘Live Music Now’ concerts to utilize the therapeutic potential of music for people in need. Some musicians sent by the organisation to perform in prisons received appreciative letters from murderers and rapists, who felt calmed by the music of Mozart and Beethoven.

An important aspect of music is its universality. There is no barrier due to spoken language or national borders, and anyone can respond to the feelings it conveys. Music provides a sense of unity in times of war or stress, and often brings people together when they sing their national anthem or mark significant social events such as birthdays.

All cultures seem to respond to music. Following WW2, Western music emerged as a significant cross-cultural communication and source of high value to the Japanese people. The Tokyo String Quartet, formed in 1969, went on to become one of the world’s leading ensembles. Kazuhide Isomura, the quartet’s violist, started to play a musical instrument after 1946, when his mother vowed her sons should have nothing to do with war, and music seemed a healthy alternative.

Chamber music has a special cross-cultural place as a paradigm for cooperation, intense listening, negotiation, empathy and unity. As such, it is also a model for humanity. In this context, I would like to mention Musica Viva Australia, started by violist Richard Goldner. Together with other refugees from Nazi Germany, Goldner found solace in chamber music during hard times in prewar and wartime Europe, and wanted to share this music as a gift to his new country.

When he escaped Vienna and arrived in Australia in 1939, Goldner auditioned for the Sydney Symphony. As a foreign national, he was denied the post and instead worked as a jeweler. Known for his inventive skills, he was approached by the War Office to design a zipper for parachutes. The invention brought in some money, which he used to establish the Musica Viva Society in collaboration with Charles Berg and other refugees. Musica Viva Australia has grown into one of the largest arts organisations in the world, presenting concerts and promoting music education for schools.

Learning music is advantageous for children. They can develop brain function, dexterity, self-discipline, pursuit of excellence, and social skills. They also learn to cooperate, listen to other opinions, and assert themselves in discussions.

The idea that studying music improves the intellect is not new, but there is good evidence from a study conducted at the University of Toronto. Six-year-old children, who were given music lessons for a year, showed increases in IQ compared with control groups.

Music can be an effective agent of social change. The El Sistema national music program in Venezuela has trained about 400,000 disadvantaged children, creating a network of orchestras that diverted adolescents from truancy and crime. In the process, these youngsters were able to form a superb youth orchestra. This hugely successful program is being copied throughout the world.

Classical music also brought purpose and achievement to Paraguayan slum children, who built and played orchestral instruments made out of recycled landfill rubbish.

In other examples of social change, music has been shown to reduce crime. During 2004, the British Transport Police piped classical music into London Underground stations in some of the most dangerous neighbourhoods. After playing the music for six months, robberies were cut by 33 per cent, staff assaults by 25 per cent, and vandalism by 37 per cent. Previously, in 2001, police in West Palm Beach, Florida, mounted a CD player and speakers on a derelict building in a dangerous neighborhood. After playing the classics all day for nearly three months, there was a reduction in shootings, thefts, and drug deals.

Does music have a Moral value? The Nazis’ love of music is a forceful argument against music as a moral force. Although wielders of evil, such as Nazis, misused music, this does not diminish its beauty and positive function. As one of my interviewees said: “A bread knife can cut or kill, but that does not vilify the knife. What matters is how you use it.”

Is classical music elitist?

People are mistaken if they believe classical music is elitist, as music lovers come from all socioeconomic groups. Today, anybody can study and listen to music. Many people are not aware that classical music is used as the soundtrack for many movies, or that music arouses fantasy, creativity and self-expression, qualities that have a bearing on work and everyday relationships. No doubt, any music, whether classical, jazz, or pop can stimulate the brain in similar ways.

When I embarked on this project several years ago, I was seeking answers to questions about the association of music with individual and social issues, and its contribution to Western civilization. In the past, such a quest would have taken for granted that music was a secure aesthetic which only required reinforcing the current audience base, and revealing music to new listeners who might come to love and value the art. Today, however, classical music is under some threat.

The number of live performances has dwindled, as people can download music from the Internet at any time of the day. Their iPods with vast amounts of music can provide entertainment to suit any mood.

The ideology of relativism, although well intentioned, has contributed to a shift in values, and led to the view that all ideas and disciplines can be considered equally valid. This ideology puts art music on a par with other genres. Consequently, the great classical compositions and re-creative performing musicians have no claim to pre-eminence.

Moreover, Western cultural traditions are being dumbed down, which is a shame because the foundations of art music have taken hundreds of years to build.

Another threat to music in general has arisen from political Islam. Musicians might soon join cartoonists on the frontline of attacks by violent Islamists, or jihadists, who seek to ban and destroy secular music. In 2012, the jihadists who took over northern Mali beat people for listening to music and smashed Malian instruments and cassettes. When Islamic State took control of Raqqa in northeast Syria, they first imposed full-face veiling on women and then banned music. For the supposed crime of listening to pop music, Islamic State beheaded a 15 year-old boy in Mosul.

If Islamic extremists were free to extend their influence and control in the West, they would surely attempt the demise of Western music, already evident in their London borough poster campaigns with signs captioned “No Music or Concerts”. Could we put the jihadists’ loathing of music to good use? Perhaps music would prove a better weapon than bullets. Some British special forces have already blasted Bollywood tunes at Islamic State fighters to unnerve them!

What does the future hold?

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the study and performance of art music could be crushed in two or three generations if it is not protected and given special status. This requires some funding, but above all, the will to promote music education and live performance.

The successful El Sistema music education program now overlaps with music curricula worldwide, including Musica Viva’s “Live Performance Plus” for schools. As in sports, the program demands self-discipline, constant repetition, resilience, and commitment to long-term goals, lessons often lost in current education.

In terms of music performance, multimedia is a fertile new direction that includes combinations of different mediums, such as string quartet, radio and video installations.

Although some people believe interest in classical music is flagging in the West, its fervent embrace in Asia can be seen as a triumph for Western music. In China, people are finding great worth in the art as part of a good education for children, an investment in their future, and the development of correct behaviour and self-discipline. Over 40 million children are learning to play the piano, and when Western musicians perform in China, they find large, enthusiastic audiences, full of children.

There are still many unknowns concerning music. Regarding the mechanism of transcendence, theoretical physics might enlighten us in the future. Michio Kaku, the physicist who co-founded string theory, has said the Universe could be a symphony of vibrating strings and the mind of God that occupied Einstein may turn out to be cosmic music.

In the meantime, we are limited to earthbound music and its protection. In this age of increasing fear and violence, we need more music, and I believe the world would be a much poorer place without it.

For the audience, music opens a gentle door to pleasure, if not transformation. Through the magical space between performer and listener, the audience can experience music as the language of emotions: love, excitement, consolation, joy, reverence, and humour. We can also develop sincerity, empathy, cooperation, reflection, creativity, purpose and transcendence. Is there much more to ask for?

As Shakespeare said: “If music be the food of love, play on.”