Why We Love Music

by Carl E. Seashore

Music proper. Sounds may be woven into beautiful patterns. This is music. We admire the melodic progressions, the rhythmic patterns, the harmonic structure, and the qualitative modulations in the flow of beautiful sounds. Harmony, balance, symmetry, contrast and fusions become embodied in musical form. Here the object of our affections is the artistic creation. The place of the musician is quite analogous to the astronomer's feeling of the sublime as he looks into the heavens in the light of his knowledge of the nature and movement of heavenly bodies.

Music with words and action. Much of the charm of music lies in its association with words which carry the message, as in song. The center of interest in much of the vocal art lies in the meaning conveyed by the words where the music serves as an artistic embellishment. This is true of the lullaby, the cowboy song, the lover's plea, and grand opera. Likewise, much of the charm of music lies in its association with overt action as in dances, work songs, marches, and games, where action is rhythmic. This added power of the music lies not only in the dance steps but more conspicuously in the suggestive rhythms divided into intricate patterns often far surpassing the score or the physical performance. That is what we mean when we say music carries. In such situations the musical appeal may lie for one person in the verbal message or the overt action and for another, purely in the musical appeal. Yet both words and action on the one hand and music on the other are enriched through the association.

Symbolism. Music finds its highest and most universal expression in symbolism. Music is primarily a way of expressing moods, attitudes, feelings, and longings in generalized form. The listener tends to live himself concretely into the feeling suggested. In the esthetic mood he is not aware of the mechanics of the symbolic suggestion, for which the art has many resources, and he may not be aware of the music as such; but he lives realistically within his own personal realm of interests. Thus, music sounds the keynote on great festive occasions in the powerful forms of festive music, as in the great sacred oratorios and simpler but beautiful forms of church music or in triumphant marches and other festive celebrations in major form. But minor forms, as in tone poems and haunting melodies, work on the same principle and perhaps fully as effectively. From the grandeur suggested by the sonata to the serenity arising from the simplest bit of improvization in voice or instrument, music has unlimited power to seize the individual for some form of dreamlike realization of the subjects of his longings.

THE MUSICAL MOTIVES

What we are called upon to explain then in the attraction for musical art is essentially the motives which drive man to the creation, appreciation, and performance of music. One of these motives is the love of knowledge as a thing in itself, the understanding of what is, and the power of passing from vantage ground to vantage ground in the logical creation, appreciation, and execution of art forms.

Musical knowledge. This love of music for its cognitive value can be traced from the earliest musical achievements, as in the growing acquaintance with song, sight reading, qualifications for participation in music, and appreciation of art forms, throughout all stages in the musical development of the individual up to that of the highest interpreters and creators of music. While music is a play on our feelings and appeals primarily to our emotional life, an intellectual mastery of the process, the ability to understand artistic meanings, the ability to construct beautiful art forms, the ability to analyze elements in the power of music, the ability to see the relation between musical art and other forms of art, and the ability to comprehend the unity of all the arts, are basic in our love of music. Even in the cool and logical pursuit of the science of music, foundations are laid for the deepening of insight and the revelation of artistic values. Glimpses into the vistas of unexplored resources intensify the admiration, the feeling of awe, the glimpse into the infinite which is love of the object pursued.

The role of intelligence in music is well illustrated in recent experiments in which vocabulary was measured in three groups; namely, ten nationally well-known composers, ten of the most successful students in a large class in composition, and ten of the least successful students in the same class. It was found that the master composers and the successful students of composition ranked in or near the top in a test of general vocabulary; whereas, the unsuccessful students ranked near the bottom. Since knowledge of words is an index for the possession of ideas, it is significant to note that successful composers are persons who have a large and discriminating command of ideas.

Musical feeling. It must be recognized that the love of music is essentially an unanalyzed feeling. Countless people feel the esthetic appeal in music without understanding anything about it. It may be like the notorious puppy love, which is frequently blind, but nevertheless a deep love. This is particularly true in the earlier stages of the development of musical interests. But it is occasionally in evidence in the successful singer on the stage who may be blissfully ignorant of the principles underlying his art, the media he seeks to mold, or the significance of his message. There is much justification for the performer's forgetting what little he knows and indulging in self-expression in a state of abandon in which he deeply feels his message and expects to convey this feeling to the listener.

We must distinguish between two attitudes in listening to music and in the performance of music: the critically analytical and the purely emotional. An intelligent musician is capable of both and loves both. In the learning stages he pursues the former attitude primarily until techniques are mastered and habits are formed which operate automatically in the musical situation. This is also the dominant attitude of the music critic. But in seeking the enjoyment of music and in the unified expression of a thing beautiful, the musician takes the other attitude. Paderewski would be hopelessly lost and ineffective if, at the moment of performance, he should be consciously aware of all the art forms of which he is master. The successful performance comes in an inspirational attitude, the semi-ecstatic feeling of the beauty one seeks to convey, a state of forgetfulness of self and concrete facts.

Thus music is a language of emotion. Through it the composer and the performer convey their own emotions to the listener. It is a message and a means of communication which enable the performer and the listener to live for moments in the same tonal world of pleasure. Our muse is jealous and seeks to exclude all intruders at the moment of her artistic appeal.