[LAU] re Subconscious Affecting Music

[Stephen Stubbs]

From: Patrick Shirkey <pshirkey at boosthardware.com>

To: linux-audio-user <linux-audio-user at lists.linuxaudio.org>
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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