For this paper, I listened the RadioLab episode on music language. I chose this one because, being a musician myself, I’ve always been interested in the psychology behind music, specifically why certain sounds can so drastically alter our emotion. After all, they’re all just vibrations. So what is it about some vibrations that make them so much more significant to us than others? This is one of the primary questions addressed in this podcast.
In discussing how music affects us emotionally, the hosts referred to Igor Stravinsky’s orchestra, The Rite of Spring; specifically its debut, which, to put it simply, caused the audience to riot. The major factor attributed to this is the liberal usage of particularly dissonant notes throughout the piece. In very basic terms, musical notes can be divided into two major categories: consonant and dissonant. Consonant notes can be described as pleasing to the ear, meanwhile, dissonant notes are jarring and often unfavorable. I have a friend who jokes that “music theory is just dumb bullshit made up by nerds”, which maybe is partially true, but there is a scientific reason for why we tend to prefer certain sounds over others. Basically, when the neurons in our auditory cortex are processing a song, for example, they are able to learn patterns extremely fast and are able to …show more content…
This made me begin to think about what other elements of music can affect the mood. The most prevalent factors I came up with were lyrics, key, and tempo. Lyrics are maybe the most obvious, since they portray a specific message through spoken language. Many people enjoy being able to relate to the content of a song’s lyrics, and often find comfort in the way the songwriter is able to describe a similar feeling or experience in ways more eloquent than the average person might be able
In discussing how music affects us emotionally, the hosts referred to Igor Stravinsky’s orchestra, The Rite of Spring; specifically its debut, which, to put it simply, caused the audience to riot. The major factor attributed to this is the liberal usage of particularly dissonant notes throughout the piece. In very basic terms, musical notes can be divided into two major categories: consonant and dissonant. Consonant notes can be described as pleasing to the ear, meanwhile, dissonant notes are jarring and often unfavorable. I have a friend who jokes that “music theory is just dumb bullshit made up by nerds”, which maybe is partially true, but there is a scientific reason for why we tend to prefer certain sounds over others. Basically, when the neurons in our auditory cortex are processing a song, for example, they are able to learn patterns extremely fast and are able to …show more content…
This made me begin to think about what other elements of music can affect the mood. The most prevalent factors I came up with were lyrics, key, and tempo. Lyrics are maybe the most obvious, since they portray a specific message through spoken language. Many people enjoy being able to relate to the content of a song’s lyrics, and often find comfort in the way the songwriter is able to describe a similar feeling or experience in ways more eloquent than the average person might be able