FOOTNOTES:
[17] Giddings’ Descriptive and Historical Sociology, pp. 186 to 212.
[18] Giddings’ Descriptive and Historical Sociology, p. 237.
[19] Otherwise known as rationalistic.
[20] Giddings, op. cit. pp. 238-239.
[21] Morgan: Ancient Peoples.
[22] Giddings’ Descriptive and Historical Sociology, pp. 186 to 212.
[23] Morgan’s Ancient Peoples.
[24] Helmholtz, Sensations of Tone, Part I, p. 8.
[25] Giddings’ Descriptive and Historical Sociology, p. 346.
CHAPTER III.
Group and Individual Reaction to Music.
A Brief Record of Experiments.
Music tranquillizes human agitation. We believe that enough of musical vibration will tranquillize all agitation, whether it be such as is manifested in abnormal mental, or abnormal physical movements. Music acts differently upon those low states of motion represented by the phlegmatic temperament and rural communities. Here music excites more than it does when colliding with agitated nerve motions. These two marked effects of music were noticed by the author in the following experiences which extended over a period of many years, among all of the classes which compose the civilized group:
From Concerts through Canada and Western U. S.
From three successive tours of the Baltic Province of Russia, with audiences of the Ideo-Emotional and Dogmatic-Emotional types.
From Concert and opera tests in Germany and England.
From Concert and opera tests in the Eastern States of U. S.
From Concert and opera tests among the revolutionary elements of New York City, including Coney Island tent life for five months, lower East Side social work for five years, Brooklyn Working Girl tests, church, political, and society study among actual audiences represented by these classes.
More than two hundred thousand people were observed during these tests as to the effects of music, and the results suggested the following needs, which the author believes may be extended to the treatment of many diseases of the mind. Abnormally heightened or abnormally lowered bodily agitation, or inward motion, “needs” rhythmic stimulus from highly agitated motion, as in music; the like state of highly agitated motion in the body responds to the stimulus in calmed motions; the abnormally lowered bodily agitation responds to the unlike stimulus in the highly agitated motions of music, in excitation: a perfectly normal body “needs” no music (but such do not exist).
(1) Those social and individual bodies manifesting abnormal states of agitation “need” contact with such a body of rhythmic musical vibration as will calm and impose a normal rhythmic motion upon the disturbed motion represented by the agitation.
(2) Those social and individual bodies manifesting abnormal states of phelgma “need” contact with such a body of rhythmic musical vibration as will excite the low motion states, and impose a normal rhythmic motion upon the sub-normal motion represented by the phlegmatic states.
Above conclusions are offered as a result of the following types of experiments.
Experiments Upon the Ideo-Motor to Ideo-Emotional Type.
Desiring to try the effects of music combined with lectures of a political character, among the lower elements of Coney Island dwellers, we set up a 60×90 ft. tent at the foot of Ocean Parkway, in May, 1909; 600 chairs, a decorated platform, a grand piano and gay flags of all nations were distributed in their proper places. The subject of all lectures was Woman’s Suffrage, a theme most unpopular at that time and especially distasteful to a Coney Island mind. The prevailing religion of the district was Catholicism. The first week was devoted to suffrage lectures without music. Crowds filled the floor space of our big tent each night, and from the beginning we distinctly felt the murmurs of intended trouble. Our speakers were men high in public favor, but one of these made the following unfortunate remark:
“Catholicism is the curse of the laboring class.”
Then a workingman stood up and hurled uncomplimentary epithets at us for trying to destroy the laboring man’s only blessing—his faith. A woman added tears for her beloved church, and a socialist added oil to the flame by a bitter attack upon religion in general. Before we could make ourselves heard, a fight ensued which attracted a large outside crowd. Several policemen finally dispersed the excited audience. Our broken chairs bore mute witness of the damage, but no intention of giving up was entertained. The certainty of serious trouble for the following evening hastened our institution of music in the program. During the afternoon following our mishap, we were informed by the police that trouble was brewing for the “tent folks.” With some trepidation we entered the tent that evening. A large crowd of the “rowdy” element had gathered by eight o’clock. Four policemen guarded the entrance, but many very rough looking men crawled under the canvas at the sides and cast knowing glances at acquaintances.
Our artists for this first program had been carefully chosen, a soprano, delicate in voice and personality, a genial looking baritone, an excellent “cellest,” one of our best known violinists, and a pianist of world-wide renown. We all “held our breaths” in anticipation of what might happen. The speaker began. Immediately cat-calls and horns drowned her voice. The air was filled with foul epithets. Suddenly some one threw a stone which struck the speaker on the cheek. The meanness of the insult quieted the mob, and an officer removed the offender. Then in a few words the people were asked to reserve judgment until after the musical program.
A trio performance for violin, “cello” and piano was given. Whispering and excited murmurs continued all through this long number, but when the soprano sang the old love aria, “Ah, fors’ e lui,” from “La Traviata” by Verdi, a sudden hush fell upon the audience. At the close of this aria, emotional, tuneful and simple in construction, a storm of applause broke forth. Encores of ballads followed, and when “The Last Rose of Summer” was given, with the emotional addition of a genuine red rose, whose petals were scattered in compliance with the text, women wept, and men settled down sullenly in their seats. The irritation of the preceding three days had been reduced to normal rhythmic motion, in less than one hour of musical treatment. The rest of that evening was in every way a success.
This was not an unique experience. Musicless lectures were always more excitable in effect than were those combined with music. So certain were the results of our combination, that before the end of the summer, we could discuss any “views” with a mob element, by alternating an exciting subject with an artistically rendered musical selection. At every step, music proved its power to soothe, and showed how great is the human need of its vibratory mission.
Instances of similar effect of music upon mental agitation were observed in other situations. During a trip across the Atlantic on the old vessel “Trava,” a dangerous accident occurred during a severe storm. A panic threatened. The first officer whispered to the author to sing a song. She started the national hymns, inviting the passengers to show their patriotism and nationality by joining. First the “Star Spangled Banner” brought out a few voices, then the “Wacht am Rhein” swelled the chorus; the “Marseillaise” was then responded to, and when “The Wearing of the Green” brought forth one lusty Irish brogue, such a laugh ran round the dining saloon as completely broke the strained condition and re-established normal rhythmic pulse motion.
The tension of nerve during strikes was reduced several times by musical “benefits.” Dangerous excitement at political meetings was often converted into harmless emotionalism under evenings of Eighteenth century comedy opera tests on the East Side of Manhattan. The establishment of The Working Girls Club in Brooklyn in 1912 afforded an excellent opportunity for testing the reviving effects of music upon tired brains and bodies. One hundred and forty young and healthy working girls from department stores, telephone offices and factories, used the club house dedicated to their use and at first evidenced pleasure and benefit from the classes instituted. But presently a depressing weariness of aspect appeared, a “trying to learn” expression, which promised little for energetic application. The law class dwindled to two members; the millinery class could not attract more than six students, the cooking class began with thirty-five and ended with four, the dress-making class held but three pupils: the class in simple science was not attractive, the language classes began well, but the girls were too tired to study. Finally we gave them what they wanted, and what they needed—music. What a change came over the mental attitude! Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights, singing individually and in chorus was taught. Three hours of music swept away all traces of weariness, and sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks exhibited anew the need of music. All through the year 1912-13 for twelve months, the opera “Martha” by Flotow was rehearsed, and never was there occasion to complain of poor attendance, wandering attention, or lack of interest. A public performance was given in the Spring of 1913 at Labor Lyceum, Brooklyn. Notwithstanding long days of labor, the girls did great credit to their leaders’ work in training.
Turning to individual experiments, an instance of the strangely normalizing effects of music upon abnormal nervous conditions comes to our mind. A noble minded woman, lately deceased, devoted her life to the Sittig Christmas Tree Celebration, which annually gave a Christmas feast of presents, candies, books and entertainment to about seven thousand of Brooklyn’s poor children. She was so deaf that she heard with great difficulty, even with the aid of electrical devices. Yet she could hear softly spoken words, provided the speaker kept playing softly upon the piano during the conversation. “I do not need any artificial aid in hearing any sound audible to a normal ear, while music is in the air,” she once told us. Another woman, affected with continual trembling of the hands, became perfectly quiet and normal in action while riding in a carriage. In reply to our question as to the reason for this phenomenon, she replied, “The noise of the carriage wheels resolves itself into regular ‘beats’ which I cannot help trying to imitate.” It may be that this is but another illustration of the “need” of disturbed or unrhythmic motion for “regular beats” or rhythmic motion. A friend in Berlin was painfully deaf, yet he heard the slightest whisper over the telephone. His similar normality when listening to music, suggested to the author to class all rhythmic co-operated vibrations producing a continuous sensation in the ear, under the name of musical rhythmic vibrations. This would extend the realm of musical need to many highly active motions not generally included in the term “music.” Telephones, railway motion sounds, moaning of winds, continuous washing sounds of waves, do in fact produce results strangely similar to those seen in the application of music. Excitable people are quieter at sea-side resorts, and restless in isolated mountain districts. We have closely observed the types of individuals at water resorts in Europe and America. Everywhere the same type prevails. It is the highly strung temperament which needs and seeks the “highly strung” atmosphere. We have observed like instances in nervous university students, who study and memorize best in the street cars.
Ideo-Emotional Groups.
In our German experience, the music which elicited the largest response seemed to be that which impressed emotional pictures upon the mind. Schuman lieder are of this character: they are full of chivalric example, suggestion, symbol, shibboleth, and tend to awaken emotional reactions. In the home circles, the sentiment in music is strongly expressed. No true German will allow you to heighten the seat at the piano with a volume of Beethoven Sonaten. You cannot sit upon Beethoven in a loyal German house.
Even in the grand opera audiences of Germany, the public persists in manifesting a love for those musical ideas which awake emotions rather than cool critical judgment. The simple Kinder Lieder can be counted upon to bring the emotions to view, and unrequited love, the romantic woes of a god-like hero, or the dainty texts of sentimental ballads, are as effectual now as they ever were. Russian audiences are still more responsive to the emotional element in music, but their temperaments have a strong dash of the Ideo-motor in them.
All through Canada and the Western part of the United States, the Ideo-Emotional type of music awakens quickest response. Old ballads like “Coming Through the Rye,” “Home Sweet Home,” “Annie Laurie,” will bring applause during the preludes, and only in the most complicated environment is there a genuine response to the relatively complicated works of Wagner.
In a concert test upon the stone-working Italians at Wappingers Falls, N. Y., the home-sick Italians were so affected by “Santa Lucia” that they all closed their eyes and joined the singer, weeping as they sang. It was reported dangerous for a woman to go alone among these men, but they sang song after song for us, and escorted her five miles to the railroad station.[26]
Dogmatic-Emotional Types.
The Greek Church music and the music of the Catholic Church acts specially upon the Dogmatic-Emotional types. It is a curious sight to Americans to watch Russian peasants and officials praying in the railroad stations before rough altars and highly gilded images. The candles, always burning, suggest the strength of that command, authority, dogma, belief, which lies so heavily upon Russian minds. Under such a burden, the type of music must come within the restricted range of comprehension permitted to this type of mind. Yet this enforced religion does not act more sternly upon the choice of music in Russia, than does the free Dogmatic-Emotionalism seen in Ocean Grove, N. J. Here you find response to the same musical type that satisfied Russian audiences of a Dogmatic-Emotional character. Ocean Grove inhabitants do not pray in public stations, but no car runs on Sunday; no wagons deliver goods on the Sabbath, the rules which govern conduct and musical production in Russia, are not more strictly obeyed than are those which frown upon Sunday amusement in Ocean Grove, or dictate its musical supply. Strange to note, the Catholic element is more open in its “desecration” of the Sabbath, than is the Protestant element. This may be accounted for by the larger degree of Ideo-Motor activity among Catholic groups, notwithstanding the strength of the Church hold upon the fidelity of its members.
The Dogmatic-Emotional groups “need” a music to correspond to their type, and only such music is successful with them. Many years in church circles have proved to us the real desire or “need” of hymns and sacred songs, as a satisfaction of this type’s yearnings.
The Rationalistic Group.
Now we come to a class of comparatively few representatives. It presents a nearer approach to symmetry in its curve of mental and physical poise. It responds to stimuli appealing through knowledge to the higher intellectual processes. Ideals are stronger than their physical manifestations; the idea is more important than the model; the type is less affected by common stimuli; it secludes itself in contemplation, in more cool investigation of its own responses; it seeks food for mental labor, with time for detailed analysis of that work. All this means a more normal equilibrium between periods of high motion and rest; it means that a smaller chance of “disturbance” is encountered by this type, and consequently a smaller “need” of rhythmic music. The problem opera will satisfy it. In less need of marked rhythm, the analysis of new musical form will occupy these minds, regardless of the lack of either rhythmic or harmonious effects. The smallness of the Rationalistic group is indicated by the unpopularity of rationalistic composition. Opera managements produce the new “rationalistic” works, but they make up their financial losses by the Ideo-Emotional works like Faust, Carmen, Cavaleria Rusticana, Madam Butterfly and most of the beloved works of the popular operatic repertoire.
Thus we see that if music is a human need, it is a need greatest among the Ideo-motor and Ideo-Emotional types, or among the lower and middle classes chiefly. The Dogmatic-Emotional type needs a music of its own, and never fails to produce it. The Rationalistic type, also needs its music, because its rationalism has not yet extended to an absolute perfection of equilibrium between dissipation and integration of bodily forces, and wherever abnormality of pulse exists, there musical rhythm is “needed.” Even were this theory of musical need not admitted, the genuine love of music constitutes a need. So intense a yearning, unsatisfied, cannot be beneficial to the human system. Whether we admit music as a necessary part of human pleasure, or as a necessary stimulus to human rhythm of bodily motions, its “need” will scarcely be denied in the face of its constant demand and supply. Music reinforces human energy, aids in the control and order of the mind, elevates the conception of life, and furnishes repose for the overstimulated nerves of urban communities. Placing music then where you will, it belongs among those “better materials for storing, conveying and transforming energy”[27] and its wise application may lead to surprising results, in the conservation of faculties, now doomed to decay under the law of diminishing returns.
That some change in the bodily molecules takes place as a result of musical indulgence is believed by the author. The change in the pulse rate before and after a musical performance indicates an effect upon the circulation. The same time spent in listening to a lecture, shows less freedom from tension. This was shown in the 84 experiments with working girls. The 103 benefit tests upon revolutionary audiences showed marked effects in calming power: ten years’ experience in church choirs, showed the vast superiority of service with music, over service without music, in calming excitable congregations and in rousing phlegmatic ones; ninety-one consecutive experiments at Coney Island demonstrated that music can calm revolt, and change irritation to tranquillity; over three hundred concert studies in Russia and in the United States have shown marked increase in the normality of expression in audiences, after an evening of music, and twelve years of experience in teaching music, have shown so decided results in greater health and happiness in pupils, that music as a human “need” appears to us to be established beyond doubt.
The Federal government of our United States may not be able under its Constitution to institute Schools of Music, but the states should begin to give more consideration to State Schools of Music. If the U. S. Government is constitutionally unable to maintain National Schools of Music, any comparison with European governments so licensed by their constitutions, would be unjust and misleading. The statistics given are intended merely to show what the various governments are doing along the line of national support of musical culture, and no comparison is attempted. Our States and cities are expending vast sums upon music. The contention of the author, however, is that State Musical Colleges will not produce a national type of music, and that the highest ideal rests in a Federal control of musical culture. When music can be regarded as a national need, and not merely as a social diversion, the Federal government may see its way clear to a Federal support of musical education. Music as an important measure in social control, and as an equally important factor in individual health, belongs under the eye of the national head. With the faint hope that this place will sometime be granted to music, we submit this work.