Timeline: Vermont Public Classical

Simply type “study music” into a google search and you’ll get about three billion results; from videos and tracks of original pieces that use alpha waves to help you focus to long playlists of classical music for study and concentration. There are entire genres and branches of the music industry devoted to providing music as a backdrop to other activities. Do they work? Yes, yes they do. As Rebecca West of the Music Institute of Chicago stated, “Rhythm, melody and tempo are tools used to target non-musical behaviors, to catapult change throughout the body. A change in rhythm can trigger a reaction in the brain.”

German philosopher Immanuel Kant called music “The Quickening Art.” Oliver Sacks uses this quote often when explaining how music can jump-start the human brain. Music employs so many different parts of the mind at once. It can trigger responses that may have seemed dormant or even lost forever. Sometimes, the effect of music on the mind can even appear miraculous. I’ve seen it, firsthand.

For the past few months we’ve been exploring the way that music affects us physically, emotionally, socially and neurologically. Along the way we’ve hinted at how these concepts and studies have been translated into therapies designed to address particular needs of patients. Music therapy has become a well-established health profession dedicated to the use of musical invention to address the wellness of individuals.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice! Aristotle wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

We all know that listening to music is enjoyable, pleasurable, emotional… in short, it feels good. Why though? Why do we react to music this way?

The act of making music, actively participating in the creation of organized sound, has beneficial side effects, emotionally, socially and physically.

Our ability to hear patterns, recognize words and focus our auditory perception is thanks, in large part, to a very specific region of the brain, the superior temporal gyrus. It’s located just behind and above each ear. It’s the site of our auditory association cortex, in other words it’s the place that helps us understand language, speech and music.

Synesthesia means “sensing together” and it describes the phenomenon of one our senses triggering another; such as sound and color. This isn’t something farfetched; we come across this idea every single day. The English language is filled with synesthetic idioms. Loud colors, frozen silence, bitter cold, sharp cheese, feeling blue and seeing red are just a few examples. We understand these figures of speech instantaneously without realizing that on the surface, they’re rather odd mixtures of our five senses.

In our last episode we talked about beat induction and rhythmic entrainment, this is what causes us to pick up the beat around us and tap our feet, even if we aren’t consciously doing it. I mentioned at the very end that there are cutting edge music therapy techniques that use entrainment as a means to treat neuro-biological disorders. The idea is to use outside auditory stimulus, drones, drumming and the like, to change the mental state of the listener.

We’ve all been there, driving down the street listening to music while moving our fingers to the rhythm, sitting in a concert hall tapping our toes to the music, working out in the gym making our reps or steps match the background beat around us. I’ve caught myself falling into step with random music coming out of a shop or coffee house just by simply walking past. We call this rhythmic entrainment, the tendency to sync up with the beat around us.

Chopin’s birthday is celebrated on the 1st of March and J.S. Bach’s on either the 21st or the 31st, depending on which calendar you use. That’s a long story for another episode. We’ve spent this entire month exploring the music and lives of these two composers. All of this has come together around a concert that VPR Classical hosted last month called “The Alchemy of Genius.”

We are continuing to celebrate the life and music of J.S. Bach and Chopin, listening to excerpts from a recent concert I hosted with pianist Paul Orgel in VPR’s Stetson Studio One while also featuring highlights from an interview I had with pianist and Chopin scholar Marjan Kiepura. On our website, VPR.org/classical, you can listen to all of Paul Orgel’s performances from “The Alchemy of Genius” pairing Nocturnes by Chopin with excerpts from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book II.

We’re spending the next few episodes celebrating the life and music of J.S. Bach and Chopin. In this episode we’ll look at Chopin specifically and we’ll also have some help… Marjan: My name is Marjan Kiepura. I’m a pianist. James: That’s a bit of an understatement. Marjan is a celebrated virtuoso and a noted Chopin scholar…

We celebrate Chopin’s birthday on the first day of March and J.S. Bach’s on the last. So, on Timeline we’ll be spending this month exploring the life and music of these two influential composers. In February, I had the pleasure of hosting a concert at Vermont Public Radio’s Stetson Studio One with pianist Paul Orgel. Paul was presenting an evening of musical pairings, putting together selections from J.S Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Book II and Chopin’s Nocturnes. I was honored to be a part of the evening, giving some insights into the composers and their music. Here are some highlights I wanted to share with you.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart loved birds. His letters to family and friends mention several pet canaries he had during the course of his life, but the most famous bird Mozart ever owned was his beloved starling. The story goes that Mozart frequented a pet store in Vienna and became enamored with a particular European starling. These birds have an uncanny ability to mimic vocal sounds and presumably Mozart taught the bird to recite the opening melody of the third movement of his Piano Concerto no. 17 in G major. Mozart purchased the bird on May 27, 1784. We know this because he marked it in an expense book, along with a transcription of the bird’s version of Mozart’s melody – which had a couple of mistakes. The mistakes didn’t matter to Mozart. In the book, after the transcription, Mozart wrote the words, “That was beautiful!”

Listening to music is an emotional experience, unique to each individual. I think we’ve all had a moment when a song, a piece, a singer, a band, an orchestra has touched our hearts, moved us in some way. We also realize that it’s not the same for everyone; different music speaks to different people. We can try to describe the way the music makes us feel but I wonder if it’s even possible to really know how music effects someone else.

In the past couple of episodes we’ve looked at quite a few audio experiments (or illusions, if you will), exploring the limitations and wonderful abilities of our ears and mind. I’ve been joined by some friends from VPR, Brendan Kinney, Leslie Blount and Joe Tymecki. They volunteered to take part in these experiments and share their experiences with us.

Our ears and minds are amazing. Not only can they hear and experience the world around us, they are also filling in the gaps in our perception. We don’t even realize all the ways that our hearing is constructing the world around us, helping keep us safe and understand our surroundings.

We are wired to respond to sound, in a thousandth of a second. With that kind of visceral, automatic response, we sometimes get it wrong. I’ve been looking at the research of perceptual and cognitive psychologist Diana Deutsch. She has spent her career exploring and assembling audio illusions and curiosities. We’ll look at a few of them together and ask “can you trust your ears?” I posed that question to a few of my colleagues at VPR. They volunteered to experience a few audio experiments with me.

Have you ever had a song that you just couldn’t get out of your head? You’re not alone. 98% of people have reportedly experienced this phenomenon. Scientists call it Involuntary Musical Imagery but the more catchy title is "earworm."

Music has always been used as a tool in political campaigns.

Music surrounds us all the time. It’s everywhere. Whether you’re at a restaurant, the grocery store, doctor’s office, hotel lobby or even some manufacturing facilities there always seems to be background music playing. Why? Why is it there? Where did this practice come from?

Thanks to the 1940 film Fantasia, this music will always be tied to the image of Mickey Mouse in that droopy wizard’s cap. However, the story of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice doesn’t come from Disney. Paul Dukas’ music, written over 40 years before, tells the story beat for beat of a young apprentice using magic to get out his chores. But it wasn’t even Dukas’ story to begin with; the music is based on a poem by Goethe written in 1797.

Art is everywhere and always has been. It lines the walls of museums, buildings and caves. It fills our halls and ears with sound and music. It captures the eye with beautiful movement and imagery. Art doesn’t just express our passions and history; it defines, influences and shapes culture and civilization.

When my kids were infants I remember being told to be sure and play music for them during the day, at naptime and while they were asleep. The music had to be Mozart. Mozart was the key to making them smarter. Maybe you’ve heard of this before, the so-called “Mozart Effect.”

In our final episode of "Timeline: Elements," host James Stewart explores the history and cultural significance of the element Air.

Our third episode of "Timeline: Elements" focuses on our home, the ground beneath our feet: Earth.

Our series, "Timeline: Elements," continues as we explore the source of life: Water.

In this series "Timeline: Elements," host James Stewart takes us on a journey into history, music and expression exploring the four classic elements of antiquity: fire, water, earth and air. We begin with Fire.

Deeper Issues, Today: When I was in middle school my class put together a time capsule and I remember caring so much that music be included that I put together a mixed tape, with popular songs recorded haphazardly off the radio.

Deeper Issues, Today: On Timeline we’ve asked a lot of questions; what is music? How was music created? Why is music written? Here’s another interesting question I’d love for us to ponder, where is music?

Deeper Issues, Today: It was her first piano lesson with me, but she wasn’t new to the instrument. She had learned from YouTube tutorials and her own explorations to play some of her favorite songs. After a good first lesson her mother came over and said, “She is very talented”. I smiled and agreed. Then her mother said, “It’s surprising to me because I’m not musical at all.”

Deeper Issues, Today: Picture yourself at the beach watching the waves rise and break over the sand. You can see the water gather and rise as each waves comes in. Once a wave breaks the water level drops again. You watch the peaks and valleys rolls onto the beach. These waves transfer huge amounts of energy from one place to another traveling through the water and displacing it. We call this a mechanical wave because it needs to travel through a medium, in this case water. The number of waves that crash during a specific period of time is called the frequency.

Deeper Issues, Today: Why do humans sing? Why do we make music at all?

Ancient Music, 500 BCE: The desire to preserve music for future generations led to the development of Western notation; the lines and staves that we associate with written music today. However, there are many other forms of musical notation that were developed over the centuries by cultures around the globe.

I asked a couple of my friends and colleges to watch a video of Bobby McFerrin leading the crowd in a musical, communal social experiment and give us their reactions.

Ancient Music, 40,000 BCE: Music lies close to the foundation of our common humanity. Let me explain what I mean.

Ancient Music, 100,000 BCE: We start with a recording I made almost 13 years ago of my oldest son, Jeremiah. He’s a teenager now, runs track, plays cello and already sings lower than his dad. Like most parents, I remember spending hours holding Jeremiah as an infant; marveling at his little hands and feet and watching him begin to take in the world around him. I laughed as he discovered his own fingers, smiled as he began to recognize faces and listened intently as he began to make and mimic sound. I listened to his coos and cries, his moans and gurgles, waiting to hear his first words. There was a sense of pride that I felt when he said, “Dada” in the tiny, thin baby voice.

Ancient Music, 14 Billion BCE: Let’s start from the beginning… Where does music come from? I believe that music is at the heart of everything. It is the language of a vibrating, living cosmos. And this isn’t exaggeration; this is the basis of a current theory about what truly makes up the universe.

Music has always been created with a specific venue in mind. The composer may not know who will be in the audience or how it will be received but they know it has to be played on an instrument or sound system in a place. Throughout all of history, whether it was a church, a ballroom, a dance hall, an opera house or a dive bar, music was written to fill that location.

20th Century, 1910s-Today: In the 20th century no medium affected culture more than film. The music written to accompany the images, story and dialogue has become a huge part of the movie-going experience. In many cases it’s impossible to separate the musical theme from the film itself; the two become one in our minds.

20th Century, 1959-Today: The music of the early 20th century was marked by increasing complexity and abstraction. Serialism and the chance practices of John Cage and his followers created an aesthetic that stood opposed to the Romanticism of the century before. In the '60s and '70s a counter-reaction began to emerge as a new group of young composers sought to free themselves from the strict rules of atonalism and serialism and embrace the simplicity of minimalism.

20th Century, 1908-2012: Every morning, for more than 75 years, American composer Elliott Carter would awaken and go to his studio to write music. Carter and his wife, Helen Frost-Jones, lived in the same apartment in Greenwich Village in New York, since 1945. He was one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century, composing over 40 works after the age of 90. Carter’s music encompasses many of the influences and styles that shaped the last 100 years of music.

20th Century, 1880s-Today: Musical labels are useful. The title of a genre or style comes in handy in the record store, on the radio or for streaming services. But these labels can also be problematic and divisive.

20th Century, 1952: In 1952, on a summer day in Woodstock, New York, pianist David Tudor held an outdoor recital of contemporary piano music. During this concert he premiered a new work by composer John Cage. For this performance, Tudor sat at the piano with the lid closed, keys covered for 4 minutes and 33 seconds, split into 3 movements. The results of this performance are still controversial to this day.

20th Century, 1930-Today: In the second half of the 20th century, technology evolved at an ever-increasing pace. The ability to capture a performance and manipulate recorded sound allowed musicians, artists and composers a freedom that they had never experienced before. It all started with the advent and adoption of magnetic tape.

20th Century, 1900-1990: As a composer, Aaron Copland desired to be as American in his music as Mussorgsky and Stravinsky were Russian. He was always interested in expressing his Inscape, the true emotions happening within him. His writings, music and instruction helped bring the rigor of the European tradition to American music and influenced a generation of composers.

20th Century, 1898-1937: His life embodied the American dream. Starting from nothing, he used his talents and musical intuition to build a fortune and an international reputation. George Gershwin’s music touched a diverse array of audiences and forms, from popular song to concerti to opera. In his short life he helped shape the future of American music.

20th Century, 1866-Today: The modern American musical is usually associated with the “triple threat”, singing, dancing and acting. It is also the culmination of costume and set design utilizing resources and technology that would make Wagner jealous. The line that connects operas to musicals is a complicated one, influenced by shifting cultural tastes, commercial enterprise and a wide ocean.

20th Century, 1887-1979: Aaron Copland, Jean Françaix, Elliott Carter, Philip Glass and Quincy Jones; what do all of these musicians have in common? They were all students of Nadia Boulanger.