Music is the harmony of the universe in microcosm; for this harmony is life itself; and in man, who is himself a microcosm of the universe, chords and discords are to be found in his pulse, in his heartbeat, his vibration, his rhythm and tone. His health or sickness, his joy or displeasure, shows whether his life has music or not. ~ From the Sufi Message of Nazrat Inayat Khan
It is difficult to guess when Homo sapiens first started to use, understand and enjoy music. Many who research the subject believe that music, song and dance preceded language as a means of communication. The unborn child provides some evidence of the capacity of all human beings to react to music when motor responses to rhythmical stimuli, or even specific pieces of music, are commonly reported by the mother.
In the neonatal period, the vocalisations of the young child are musical responses. The rise and fall of the mother’s cooing patterns are also very similar in all societies and cultures. As time passed, the musical qualities of rhythm and pitch gradually subsumed into the development of speech.
These qualities are subsequently localised mainly in the left side of the brain, which is subject to significant growth between the ages of two and four. This innate capacity of the brain to interpret musical information suggests that the process has some biological survival value too.
Considerable research has proved that there are neurophysical mechanisms, which appear to have an inherent capacity to analyse musical patterns. The rhythms of the body and those of music have also been studied. Changes in pulse rate, respiration, galvanic skin responses and muscle activity have been noted.
It has also been proved that the heartbeat could be slowed if the speed of the music was one beat per minute slower than the pulse rate suggesting an entrainment effect between the speed of the music and the pulse.
Music and movement is another area of research. There was a striking increase in muscular activity in the legs in response to dance music, in the forehead in response to an arithmetical task, and in both when loud music was played.
Music is related to certain basic physiological processes. This has been proved scientifically. Music speaks to us. There are ways in which the structure of music can be compared to that of spoken and written language. The study of disturbances of musical function in relation to focal brain damage from strokes and injury has led to the use of the term amusia which denotes the impairment of musical skills and understanding associated with a lesion of the cerebral hemisphere.
Like aphasia, amusia can be divided into expressive and receptive types. Musical dyslexia and dysgraphia have been used to describe the inability to read or write musical notation respectively.
There is also no doubt that music works as a therapeutic agent. Our response to music lies most obviously in the perception and processing of a series of complex sound waves with powerful emotional overtones. However, music is more than sound, as deaf musicians will testify. Performance is accompanied by movement and body language, both important aspects of communication.
However, not much is known about how the central nervous system registers and reacts to vibrations and particularly those above and below the range of human hearing. The considerable interest and increasing amount of literature on vibro-acoustic therapy, which uses pulsed frequencies of a very low order as well as musical vibrations, suggests that the physical effect of vibration on the nervous system may contribute to the therapeutic potential of music.
Certain musical frequencies vibrate the brain cells and this process might ‘wash’ the cells so that the cerebrospinal fluid may more effectively carry away the metabolites and waste products of neuronal activity. Maybe, this is the modern equivalent to the ancient belief that the human body and the brain ‘resonate’ with music.