Why is music so important?

Press, 23 August 1984, Page 19

Why is music so important?

What is the power of music and why is it so important to us in our everyday lives? The 8.8. C. programme, “QED, Music, Music, Music,” screening on One at 10 p.m. tomorrow, examines this in-built need to hear melodious sounds and demonstrates how music can alter people’s interpretation of events. This is shown in a film sequence featuring a tender love scene. When dubbed with music which suggests menace, the meaning of the actions taking place completely changes, taking on a more sinister form. In the West there is almost total agreement over what romantic music should sound like. People hear it and know instinctively that it conveys the emotion of love. Yet the basis for such an interpretation may be only a conditioned reaction. Does “Land of Hope and Glory” evoke the same rousing response in young children as it does in adults, or do people learn to react that way? A series of experiments is conducted to try to find some of the answers. With the help of Professor John Davies of Strathclyde

University, guitarist John Willias, The Endellion String Quartet, The Tony Lee Trio and Indian singer Pernima Choudry, the programme tries to discover whether certain musical notes are actually happy or sad. If this is so, then why are Indian love songs so different from our own? A tender love song which would reduce an Indian villager to tears might have Western listeners reaching for the earplugs. Musical styles vary from culture to culture and the experts try to find common factors which link the many national styles. The principal characteristic of Western music is harmony, while Eastern music is dominated by rhythm. Charles Taylor, professor of physics at University College, Cardiff, believes it is the shape of the instruments that accounts for the variations, while John Williams is convinced music is a reflection of the human spirit. There is even a point of view which suggests that our ability to hear music is just a happy coincidence; that it is a vestigial survival mechanism which man had adapted for his own use.