The Human Need

WHO IS MUSICAL?

The Human Need

Billy and Tommy in the Hardware Store
Ann is frazzled today. The babysitter canceled at the last minute, so she had to pack up the boys and drag them along on her errands. This is never fun, but today it is particularly hard because it’s been raining all week. The kids have been stuck indoors, and Billy and his brother Tommy have ants in their pants. About the last thing they need is to be schlepped from store to store, waiting in lines with their mother.

So far they’ve gotten through three errands without breaking anything, but tension is mounting. Now, in the hardware store, eight year old Billy has begun to tease five year old Tommy, who has already taken one swing at him precariously close to the glass counter.

Suddenly the sound of music is heard coming through the store’s speakers. It is Mozart. This is not the kind of music the boys listen to at home – actually, they’ve never heard classical music before. The effect is startling and unmistakable. Both children freeze and listen for several seconds. Then Tommy begins to sway, while Billy makes gentle motions in the air with his hands. Their mother feels the change without understanding its cause, and is able to finish her errand in peace.

No one would argue that music has power. It causes people to cry, laugh, dance, tap their feet or sit in quiet contemplation. People listen to favorite songs on the radio, buy expensive subscriptions to concert series and some find ways to be involved in actual music making. We feel that music helps us get in touch with our spiritual side. Music is soothing and uplifting, funny and serious, majestic and humble. It speaks to the gamut of human emotion and fills an essential human need.

Music in Prehistory
Certainly music has been around a long time, but that it predates recorded history has been substantiated by abundant archaeological evidence. Long before people were aware of what they wanted to learn or how they wanted to learn it, music was a presence and a force in human life. Apparently even the caveman had a need to go beyond the daily grind.

In building a case for rethinking our ideas about musicality and music learning, it is helpful to think about music’s function before there were complicated things like lesson plans, pedagogies, school music and methods books. By stripping away layers of culture and civilization, we can get a sense of the essential relationship of music to the human.

While music had nothing to do with physical survival, archaeological findings indicate that it has been a constant presence through the ages. Right up there with nourishment, shelter and protection was the uniquely human need to nourish the spirit.

The need for music is part of the human’s hardwiring, unrelated to conscious study, proficiency or the degree of innate talent one may have. This essential need exists in people of every culture, and does not increase or decrease with the sophistication of the culture. It is an absolute.

Music as a Social Force
There are songs about everything. There doesn’t seem to be an element of human existence untouched by music. People sing about work, play, lost love, politics, and almost everything else. Song has accompanied every social movement from the Depression to Civil Rights to anti-war demonstrations. Music as a social force relies on people’s instinct to make music when powerful feelings need to be expressed.

When groups of people who feel strongly about something burst out in song, they do not worry about how well-trained their voices are or whether they are talented enough to be singing in public. The elemental need to express strong emotions and convictions through music supersedes all other considerations.