CW1.1 Music and the Mind

A simple Internet search using the keywords “music,” “cognition,” “mind,” “brain,” “therapy,” etc., will lead you to the hundreds of sites discussing music’s power.  Or, you might go to your school’s library website and search through electronic journals.  Using the same key words you will find a number of journals (including: Music Perception, Psychology of Music, and Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, & Brain ) and hundreds of articles.  Or, you might simply began with the short list we offer below:

• Jourdain, Robert. Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination. New York: William Morrow and Co., 1997.
• Levitin, Daniel J. This Is Your Brain on Music: the Science of a Human Obsession. New York: Penguin Group, 2006.
• Sachs, Oliver. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. New York: Random House Vintage Books, 2008.
• Shulman, Matthew. “Music as Medicine for the Brain.” U.S. News & World Report, July 13, 2009.
  http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/brain-and behavior/articles/2008/07/17/music-as-medicine-for-the-brain
• Storr, Anthony. Music and the Mind. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015.
• Search Ted Talks for “music and the brain.”

CW1.2 Music and Mythology

We know from experience that music enlivens our emotions. In a number of cultural traditions music is associated with life itself. 

Orpheus (ancient Greece)

The demigod Orpheus was one of Greek mythology’s greatest musicians. His music charmed not just humans and animals, but plants and minerals as well. To hear his music, trees pulled up their roots; rivers changed their courses.

Orpheus had many adventures. The best known is his love-inspired journey to the Underworld, the land of the dead, where he sought to reclaim his deceased wife, Eurydice. Success depended upon the seemingly impossible; Orpheus needed to convince Hades (the ruler of that gloomy realm) to free her soul. So great was Orpheus’s musical power that he got his wish. But there was one condition. Orpheus could lead Eurydice out of the Underworld, but only if he did not gaze upon her until both have reached the planet’s surface.

Alas, though Orpheus conquered the gods, he could not conquer himself. As the couple journeyed upwards, he saw the light of the sun shining above and glanced backwards. Eurydice was drawn back into the Underworld. There are alternate endings to the story. In some, Orpheus is torn apart, either by wild dogs or Thracian Maenads. In another, he survives, but forswears the love of women. In yet another, the gods reunite the couple in the stars. In the northern hemisphere, Orpheus’s lyre can easily be found in the constellation Lyra.

Tawa and the Spider Women (Hopi)

According to Hopi tradition, in the beginning there were two beings: Tawa, the Father Sun God, and Spider Woman, who controlled the underworld, home of the gods. At first, there were no creatures or humans. But then Tawa and Spider Woman had “The Great Thought,” which created the Earth. Tawa was not done, however. He continued to think, and Spider Woman gave these new thoughts form. She molded animals from clay. When covered in a life-giving blanket, they began to breath. Next she molded clay human beings. But the blanket’s power was insufficient. To quicken them, Spider Woman held the figures to her breast as she and Tawa sang them to life.

Shiva (Hindu)

Of the Hindu Trinity (along with Brahma and Vishnu), Shiva is closely associated with dance and music. In his dancing incarnation the many-limbed god is known as Nataraja (King of the Dance). As Nataraja, Shiva is depicted dancing in a circle of flames. His upper right hand holds a drum, which represents the rhythmic flow of creation; his upper left hand holds a flame, a symbol of destruction. Nataraja’s dance, the Tandava, is vigorous and quick, symbolizing the cycle of creation and destruction, birth and death.