The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature (39 page)

BOOK: The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature
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pp. 98
“Several recent studies show that IgA levels increased following
-99
various forms of music therapy.”
Charnetski, C. J., G. C. Strand, M. L. Olexa, L. J. Turoczi, and J. M. Rinehart. (1989). The effect of music modality on immunoglobulin A (IgA).
Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science
63: 73-76. Kuhn, D. (2002). The effects of active and passive participation in musical activity on the immune system as measured by salivary immunoglobulin A (SIgA).
Journal of Music Therapy
39(1): 30 -39. McCraty, R., M. Atkinson, G. Rein, and A. D. Watkins. (1996). Music enhances the effect of positive emotional states on salivary IgA.
Stress Medicine
12(3): 167-175. McKinney, C. H., M. H. Antoni, M. Kumar, F. C. Tims, and P. McCabe. (1997). Effects of guided imagery and music (GIM) therapy on mood and cortisol in healthy adults.
Health Psychology
16(4): 390-400. McKinney, C. H., F. C. Tims, A. M. Kumar, M. Kumar. (1997). The effect of selected classical music and spontaneous imagery on plasma beta-endorphin.
Journal of Behavioral Medicine
20(1): 85-99. Rider, M. S., and J. Achterberg. (1989). Effect of music-assisted imagery on neutrophils and lymphocytes.
Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback
14(3): 247-257. Tsao, J., T. F. Gordon, C. Dileo, and C. Lerman. (1999). The effects of music and biological imagery on immune response.
Frontier Perspectives
8: 26-37.
p. 99
“In another study, levels of melatonin, norepinephrine, and epinephrine increased during a four-week course of music therapy . . .”
Kumar, A. M., F. Tims, D. G. Cruess, M. J. Mintzer, G. Ironson, D. Loewenstein, et al. (1999). Music therapy increases serum melatonin levels in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine
5(6): 49 -57.
“Melatonin . . .”
C
13
H
16
N
2
O
2
.
“. . . some researchers believe that it [melatonin] increases cytokine production, which in turn signals T-cells to travel to the site of an infection.”
Carrillo-Vico, A., R. J. Reiter, P. J. Lardone, J. L. Herrera. R. Fernández-Montesinos, J. M. Guerrero, et al. (2006). The modulatory role of melatonin on immune responsiveness.
Current Opinion in Investigating Drugs
7(5): 423-431.
“Serotonin levels were shown to increase in real time during listening to pleasant, but not unpleasant music.”
Evers, S., and B. Suhr. (2000). Changes of the neurotransmitter serotonin but not of hormones during short time music perception.
European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
250(3): 144-147.
“Techno music increased levels of plasma norepinephrine (NE), growth hormone (GH) . . .”
Gerra, G., A. Zaimovic, D. Franchini, M. Palladino, G. Giucastro, N. Reali, et al. (1998). Neuroendocrine responses of healthy volunteers to “techno-music”: Relationships with personality traits and emotional state.
International Journal of Psychophysiology
28(1): 99 -111.
“. . . rock music was shown to cause decreases in prolactin . . . a hormone associated with feeling good.”
Möckel, M., L. Röcker, T. Stork, J. Vollert, O. Danne, H. Eichstädt, et al. (1994). Immediate physiological responses of healthy volunteers to different types of music: Cardiovascular, hormonal and mental changes.
European Journal of Applied Physiology
68(6): 451-459.
p. 103
“. . .
Sweet Anticipation
. . .”
Huron, D. (2006).
Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. See also the excellent book review: Stevens, C., and T. Byron. (2007). Sweet anticipation: Music and the psychology of expectation. [Review of the book
Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation
].
Music Perception
24(5): 511-514.
p. 105
“In a paper published a few years ago in the journal
Music Perception
. . .”
Vines, B. W., R. L. Nuzzo, and D. J. Levitin. (2005). Analyzing temporal dynamics in music: Differential calculus, physics, and functional data analysis techniques.
Music Perception
23(2): 137-152.
p.106
“. . . tension tends to build up during music to a peak, after which the tension is released and subsides, often rapidly.”
It is true that composers sometimes flout these conventions and write pieces with no tension, pieces that end on tension rather than resolving, and so on. But these are relatively uncommon compared to what typically occurs; indeed, their relative rarity is what gives them their power to surprise.
“In performances of Indian classical music . . .”
The wording for this section comes from Jamshed Bharucha.
p. 107
“. . . ‘Over the Rainbow’ . . .”
Arlen, H., and E. Y. Harburg. (1939). Over the rainbow [Recorded by Judy Garland]. On
Over the Rainbow
[LP]. Pickwick Records.
“. . . ‘She Loves You’ . . .”
Lennon, J., and P. McCartney. (1963). She loves you [Recorded by The Beatles]. On
She Loves You
[45rpm record]. London: Parlophone Records.
p. 109
“ ‘I define joy . . . as a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace . . .’ ”
Oprah Winfrey
. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2008, from
http://en.wiki
-
quote.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey
, accessed March 7, 2008.
 
CHAPTER 4
 
p. 125
“In many of the places I’ve worked, music has been there as a soundtrack to help the employees get through their day.”
In the 1970s (some years before my chef ’s job at Sambo’s), I worked as a dishwasher at Scoma’s, a seafood restaurant in Sausalito, California. There, we often listened to the song “Hard Work” by John Handy. The manager would play it every night at the beginning of the shift as we all scurried to make the restaurant ready for the frenzied, every-night-a-capacity-crowd dinner rush. The stress of getting all the food prepared, pots and pans clean and oiled, tables set, menus printed, and so on, was greatly relieved by music that the manager piped throughout the back room and entire restaurant over the PA. When this song came on, people’s tense shoulders would drop an inch, their footsteps become lighter, their actions become more fluid and graceful. The heavy beat of the song and its I-bVII vamp give it a sense of gravity, but the performance is so
jovial
and ebullient that it feels almost heliumlike in its ability to elevate drudgery and tension to purposefulness and a confidence that everything will work out right. So many songs with vamps set up a groove that in turn conveys a sense of timelessness—we forget about the clock and feel that if something goes wrong, no problem—we can just do it over again. Any thoughts that we may run out of time are vanquished by the alternate universe of the song, where the beat is marked at regular, rhythmic intervals and the song moves unflinchingly forward, but ordinary “world time” seems to stand still. Handy, J. (1976). Hard work. On
Hard Work
[LP]. Impulse! Records
p. 126
“Mothers from every culture sing to their infants.”
For more on the evolution of behavior, see the excellent books by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy: Hrdy, S. B. (1981).
The Woman That Never Evolved.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ———. (1981).
Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection.
New York: Pantheon.
p. 131
“. . . ‘God Bless America.’ ”
Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant from Siberia, wrote the song in 1918. In 1938 he revised it, and it was reintroduced on Armistice Day that year, sung by Kate Smith. There have been movements over the years to adopt it officially as America’s national anthem. Woody Guthrie reportedly wrote “This Land Is Your Land” as a musical reply to “God Bless America.” ASCAP, the composers’ rights agency, reports that “God Bless America” was by far the most played song in the months following 9/11.
p. 133
“Sorrow does have an evolutionary purpose . . .”
Brean, J. (December 8, 2007). Chemicals play key role in a person’s appreciation of sad music, expert says. [Electronic version].
National Post
. Retrieved March 5, 2008, from
http://www.nationalpost.com/Story.html?id=154661
.
 
CHAPTER 5
 
p. 140
“The reason that most frogs synchronize their calls is that it makes it more difficult for predators to locate them . . .”
Tuttle, M. D., and M. J. Ryan, (1982). The role of synchronized calling, ambient light, and ambient noise, in anti-bat-predator behavior of a treefrog.
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
11: 125-131.
p. 141
“survival is only enhanced by sorting out fact from fiction . . .”
Of course, organisms can “get ahead” by telling lies, Huron told me. So,
deceptive
communication can enhance survival of the deceiver. The point is not that communication should be truthful, but that organisms will have a selective advantage if they can decipher fact from fiction. One can easily imagine an arms race of deceivers trying to stay one step ahead of a developing ability to spot deceit, or vice-versa, and this does occur in the animal kingdom.
“Music’s direct and preferential influence on emotional centers of the brain and on neurochemical levels supports this view [that music and brains co-evolved].”
See Chapter 4.
p. 143
“By seven months, infants can remember music for as long as two weeks . . .”
Saffran, J. R., M. M. Loman, and R. R. Robertson. (2000). Infant memory for musical experiences.
Cognition
77(1): B15-B23.
“. . . mother-infant vocal interactions exhibit striking similarities across a wide range of cultures.”
Trehub, S. (2003). The developmental origins of musicality.
Nature Neuroscience
6(7): 669-673. And summarized in: Cross, I. (in press). The evolutionary nature of musical meaning.
Musicae Scientiae.
See also, for related and relevant ideas: Cross, I. (2007). Music and cognitive evolution. In
Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology,
edited by R. I. Dunbar and L. Barrett. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, pp. 649-667. Cross, I. (in press). Music as a communicative medium. In
The Prehistory of Language
(Vol. 1), edited by C. Knight and C. Henshilwood. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Cross, I. (in press). Musicality and the human capacity for culture.
Musicae Scientiae.
“Mothers also use these musiclike vocalizations to direct their infants’ attention . . .”
Dissanayake, E. (2000). Antecedents of the temporal arts in early mother-infant interactions. In
The Origins of Music,
edited by N. Wallin, B. Merker, and S. Brown. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 389-407. Gratier, M. (1999). Expressions of belonging: The effect of acculturation on the rhythm and harmony of mother-infant interaction. Musicae Scientiae Special Issue: 93-112.
p. 146
“. . . some mice might have stumbled upon the fact that if
they
made low-pitched sounds with their throats and mouths, it might serve to intimidate other mice . . .”
Owings and Morton call this “expressive size symbolism.” Owings, D. H., and E. S. Morton. (1998).
Animal Vocal Communication: A New Approach.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. See also: Cross, I. (in press). The evolutionary nature of musical meaning.
Musicae Scientiae.
p. 147
“ ‘Vicarious musical pleasure . . . seems to put a damper on musical self-expression.’ ”
Robison, P. (n.d)
Blackwalnut Interiors
. Unpublished manuscript. I am grateful to Paula Robison’s grandson Toby Robison for providing this.
p. 152
“In the 1930s, Albert Lord and Milman Parry recorded folk songs in the mountains of (then) Yugoslavia . . .”
Lord, A. B. (1960).
The Singer of Tales.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
p. 152
“Some of them memorize their songs with very high accuracy . . .”
-53 Lord, A. B. (1960).
The Singer of Tales.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
p. 153
“The Gola of West Africa place a particularly high value on the preservation and transmission of tribal history.”
D’Azevedo, W. L. (1962). Uses of the past in Gola discourse.
Journal of African History
3
:
11-34.
p. 154
“Oliver’s mind had brought up Mahler’s song of mourning for the death of children . . .”
Sacks, O. (2007).
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.
New York: Knopf, p. 280.
“ ‘All this time, I still remember everything you said’ ”
Banks, T., P. Collins, and M. Rutherford. (1986). In too deep [Recorded by Genesis]. On
Invisible Touch
[CD]. Virgin Records.
“ ‘I remember the smell of your skin . . .’ ”
Adams, B., and R. Lange. (1993). Please forgive me [Recorded by Bryan Adams]. On
So Far So Good
[CD]. A&M Records.
p. 156
“. . . mutually reinforcing, multiple constraints of songs are crucially what keeps oral traditions stable over time.”
Wallace, W. T., and D. C. Rubin. (1988). “The wreck of the old 97”: A real event remembered in song. In
Remembering Reconsidered: Ecological and Traditional Approaches to the Study of Memory,
edited by U. Neisser and E. Winograd. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 283-310.

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