The most subtle, profound and nuanced musical instrument ever to exist; or, how music preceded language, and how losing a shared musical experience is akin to losing the connection to the divine.
Wonderfully written, William. It makes sense of something that's been puzzling me--maybe it's really 'In the beginning was the sound.' Song is the divine language between us and God. There's no name of God, only the sound.
Someone also told me recently that rhythm heals trauma. Grief and loss leave us untethered to reality. Rhythm brings that connection to our body, the here and now, back.
Thank you! Rhythm and healing would be a right brain thing, which is much closed off to many in the West, part of why we are such a mess psychologically. One does not heal rationally, or by categorizing.
This was interesting and something I've been thinking about lately. I have cats, dogs, and parakeets, and for all their intelligence (relatively speaking), cats and dogs have an extremely limited range of sounds they can make to communicate -- and this seems to be true of most mammals (with the exception of whales/dolphins), including non-human primates, whereas the birds sound like they're engaging in actual conversations, given the variety and patterning of the sounds they make to each other. I don't know what that means, if anything, but it's one more interesting anomaly about our very bizarre world! You really could say our vocal capacity makes us human, even more so than our opposable thumbs.
Our primate relatives have none of the verbal architecture described in McGilchrist, which is why all attempts to get them to speak have failed. Raccoons have an opposable thumb, basically, but none of that verbal architecture either, though John Michael Greer speculated they might be an intelligent species in a few ten million years, lol. Not that our language makes us intelligent, necessarily....
This is a really beautiful piece, love learning more about the history of language, really fascinating. Music has been such an important part of my life for so long and definitely helped me cope with the insanity of the COVID event. Just recently I have been talking to a friend who has encouraged me to find a way to sing with other people again because I love it so much. I miss communal singing like I did in church or in Girl Scouts. I miss the feeling of the sound vibrations in my body of feeling part of a community. It would be great to experience more communal music or singing rather than purely listening or performing.
Music and a huge variety of it was a huge part of the community when I was growing up. 'Dances, festivals bonspiels, weddings, races etc all had some type of music which was a major part of the evening and everyone in the entire community participated, all ages, both sides of the political isle, all walks of life came to sing and dance together. So sad to see it go. Interesting article, thx for sharing.
Fascinating. That must be a profound feeling. I once attended a Brandi Carlisle show at First Avenue in Minneapolis (the house Prince built), when she got the audience to sing a three part harmony.
Loved this dive into sound, thank you William... would like to leave 2 honourable mentions: Gabrielle Roth for :Ecstatic Dance and Gennady Tkachenko-Papizh for :amazing sound production, lol.
Wonderfully written, William. It makes sense of something that's been puzzling me--maybe it's really 'In the beginning was the sound.' Song is the divine language between us and God. There's no name of God, only the sound.
Someone also told me recently that rhythm heals trauma. Grief and loss leave us untethered to reality. Rhythm brings that connection to our body, the here and now, back.
Thank you! Rhythm and healing would be a right brain thing, which is much closed off to many in the West, part of why we are such a mess psychologically. One does not heal rationally, or by categorizing.
Cussing is also primal. When hemp activist Jack Herer had a stroke, he temporarily lost the ability to talk -- but he could still cuss.
This was interesting and something I've been thinking about lately. I have cats, dogs, and parakeets, and for all their intelligence (relatively speaking), cats and dogs have an extremely limited range of sounds they can make to communicate -- and this seems to be true of most mammals (with the exception of whales/dolphins), including non-human primates, whereas the birds sound like they're engaging in actual conversations, given the variety and patterning of the sounds they make to each other. I don't know what that means, if anything, but it's one more interesting anomaly about our very bizarre world! You really could say our vocal capacity makes us human, even more so than our opposable thumbs.
Our primate relatives have none of the verbal architecture described in McGilchrist, which is why all attempts to get them to speak have failed. Raccoons have an opposable thumb, basically, but none of that verbal architecture either, though John Michael Greer speculated they might be an intelligent species in a few ten million years, lol. Not that our language makes us intelligent, necessarily....
This is a really beautiful piece, love learning more about the history of language, really fascinating. Music has been such an important part of my life for so long and definitely helped me cope with the insanity of the COVID event. Just recently I have been talking to a friend who has encouraged me to find a way to sing with other people again because I love it so much. I miss communal singing like I did in church or in Girl Scouts. I miss the feeling of the sound vibrations in my body of feeling part of a community. It would be great to experience more communal music or singing rather than purely listening or performing.
Music and a huge variety of it was a huge part of the community when I was growing up. 'Dances, festivals bonspiels, weddings, races etc all had some type of music which was a major part of the evening and everyone in the entire community participated, all ages, both sides of the political isle, all walks of life came to sing and dance together. So sad to see it go. Interesting article, thx for sharing.
Lovely, not thru it yet.. but wanted to. note "the most subtle" is how I think your title should read., typo says 'must' not most
Thank you. I changed it. One of those typos I must have read a dozen times, lol
Yep
Something you might appreciate: English musician Jacob Collier likes to "play" his audiences:
https://youtu.be/3KsF309XpJo?si=hmDN0tGUpgDeKi2X
Fascinating. That must be a profound feeling. I once attended a Brandi Carlisle show at First Avenue in Minneapolis (the house Prince built), when she got the audience to sing a three part harmony.
That was very enjoyable. Thank you.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it. Hard to tell sometimes because the "positive" stuff get about 30% less views on average.
Loved this dive into sound, thank you William... would like to leave 2 honourable mentions: Gabrielle Roth for :Ecstatic Dance and Gennady Tkachenko-Papizh for :amazing sound production, lol.
Thank you. I'm glad you appreciated it. I will look into those.