Re: [LAU] re Subconscious Affecting Music

From: Patrick Shirkey <pshirkey@email-addr-hidden>

To: linux-audio-user <linux-audio-user@email-addr-hidden>
Sent: Sun, August 29, 2010 4:13:08 AM
Subject: Re: [LAU] re Subconscious Affecting Music

On Fri, August 27, 2010 12:21 pm, david wrote:
> I asked a friend of mine, who's rather intellectual about music, about
> the book someone mentioned in this thread, of ancient Greek thought on
> the effect of music on the mind:
>
>> I have heard of it, and read about it, but that isn't the work one
>> would cite if you were looking for a scientific study of the effects
>> of music on the subconscious mind.

Looking for a scientific study of the effects of music......

Now that I've reread that statement, I would have to strongly disagree with the
friend.

Dog whistles-- has anyone ever heard the high pitched frequency of a dog
whistle? So how did we know that dog whistles produced high frequency sound
before the invention of the oscilloscope? Was it not the 'effect' of the dog
whistle on dogs that was observed? And from this repeatable observation of
dogs' reactions to a blown dog whistle, modern western science was able to
'prove' that dog whistles actually produced a sound.

We refer to this procedure of inferring and proving something exists (through
repeatable experimentation) when that something cannot be detected directly by
the five human senses as the modern western scientific method.

Now, where did this modern western scientific method come from? The Ancient
Greeks. You know, the guys who brought us the proof that air exists by means of
their experiments with the 'water thief' gourd.

The Ancient Greeks, who also brought us the principles of rhetoric. I don't
recall the reference, but I remember that one of their best orators would have a
musician playing along with his speech. He would use rhetoric and the emotion
evoking power of the music to completely influence his hearers. One of the
earliest forms of brain washing, if you will.

Best,
Stephen.

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Received on Mon Aug 30 04:15:03 2010