This is an English translation of an article published in Nikkan San on April 4, 2019, as a part of my column, “The Way of the Pianist.
“To listen is to expect to hear things.” I am quoting my teacher from a lesson when I was in high school. I have since pondered on it as I make my progress on my path.
The quickest sense among the five senses that humans possess is our sense of hearing. The speed of light is indeed faster than the speed of sound. However, once we detect light or color our brain processes sound ten times faster than it does light. Therefore, we perceive sound ten times faster than we do any information we detect from our vision. This is because our sense of sound is most closely tied to our primal instinct of survival.
Our sense of taste and touch require us to be in physical contact with the object. Vision requires to us to be facing in its direction, on top our eyes that close while blinking, and sleeping. Our sense of smell is not accurate, acute, or wide range. So, our sense of hearing is the most likely to detect a life threatening danger first. It is always functioning. Our ears do not close, like our eyes do. Even when we are asleep, we hear things. And the information we gather from what we hear often connect directly to emotions and actions without going through intellectual analysis.
There are many audible sounds of danger; screams, large animals growling, large objects falling, sirens, etc. There are sounds that signify peace and calm, too. We like the sounds of birds chirping because that means peace and quiet. If the chirping stops suddenly, that signifies danger. Ocean waves calm us down, because it has a cycle of roughly twelve times per minute – the same as our cycle of breath when we sleep. Listening to your family members breathing as they sleep has the same affect as the ocean waves on us, in fact.
Most of the sounds we hear, we process subconsciously. When we focus in on our sense of sound in order to listen, our intellectual analysis mixed with the subconscious and emotional associations to sounds makes it extremely powerful. That’s where the power of music comes from. When I listen to music, for example, I feel my vision overtaken by what I am listening to. It makes me feel like I am floating in space.
For seniors suffering from dementia, I often hear of cases where they become more alive and active with music. Even with those who lost the ability to speak, they are often able to sing songs, with words, when prompted. That is also because music is processed in our “reptilian” brain, connected to our most primal instincts. Many medical researchers and institutions are now incorporating this effect of music in caring for our elders.
Let the power of music heal us all!
Thank you for the article.
“To listen is to expect to hear things”
”Music is Empathy”
These may be two conflicting ideas.
Because when we expect to hear something we tend to expect to hear a certain thing which explains why when we hear the surprise symphony for the first time we are genuinely surprised. After the first hearing, of course, we are no longer surprised because we expect to hear the fortissimo. What if Haydn told the conductor the ff was optional? Then the audience (and maybe the orchestra) would not ever know what was coming and would force them to pay attention. I would expect that to be very unsettling for the audience.
So the expectation to hear a piece to be played a certain way may get in the way of our empathy with what the performer is actually saying when she plays. Instead of being open and engaging with the pianist, we may be irritated when she doesn’t give us what we expect.
Thank you so much for your comment, Larry.
If the expectation is colored with preconceived notions, then you are right that “listening” and “empathy” may conflict against each other. But can one’s expectation be open minded, curious to the new sound world one may not have known before? My Yoga teacher used to say “You cannot really listen and think at the same time. By really focusing on listening, one can quite her mind.” My ideal is to be surprised by the “Surprise” Symphony, every time. It is not that one does not learn. It is that one learns the joy of an open mind, and allows to be surprised by each subtle differences with each piece of music, each performer, and each performance. Even in listening to the same recording, with an open mind, one begins to hear different things: aspects, layers, different possible interpretations of the same performance by the same performers.
What do you think, Larry?
Of course, I agree with your argument. Makiko. In fact, if you think about it, maybe all human communication is a balance between listening and thinking. I had a conversation on the phone earlier this morning with a good friend who interrupted me mid-sentence and became very upset over what she thought I was going to say – and I was actually not intending to say what she became upset about. So clearly she was thinking, not listening.
I like that you said, “one learns the joy of an open mind.” That expresses the essence of how we should always enjoy music. I recall a friend of mine in college once saying, “There is no such thing as background music.”
Although sadly I fear I will never again be surprised by the Surprise Symphony.
Have you ever had goosebumps from being moved by a musical experience? There is actually a neuroscientific study on the “goosebumps” phenomena with music. According to it, goosebumps tend to occur when you find pleasure in having your expectations defied. Music, or at least an aspect of musical experience anyway, is about building certain expectations and then manipulating it to trick you, to tease you, and to challenge you. When you think of it that way, then “Listening = expecting” and “Music= empathy” can perfectly go well together. If everything is to meet one’s expectation, then there is no need for empathy, or even communication at all!