CHAPTER 3
p. 87 “. . . Log Blues.” Another famous Ren and Stimpy song is the “Happy Happy Joy Joy Song.” It is just as ebullient, but I reprinted the Log song because it’s sillier and connects to the Slinky song a few lines down.
pp. 88 “. . . the ancient Greeks . . . used harp music to ease the outbursts -89 of people with mental illnesses.” Shapiro, A. (1969). A pilot program in music therapy with residents of a home for the aged. The Gerontologist 9(2): 128-133.
p. 89 “. . . the brain has been shaped by evolution and adaptations that arose independently of one another to solve specific problems.” Marcus, G. (2008). Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind. New York: Houghton-Mifflin. “. . . adaptations such as the ability to anticipate the future, solve puzzles, distinguish animate from inanimate objects, identify friends and enemies, and avoid being manipulated or deceived.” Huron, D. (2005). The plural pleasures of music. In Proceedings of the 2004 Music and Music Science Conference, edited by J. Sundberg and W. Brunson. Stockholm: Kungliga Musikhögskolan & KTH, pp. 1-13.
p. 90 “Recall Daniel Dennett’s argument that we don’t find babies cute because they are intrinsically cute . . .” See Chapter 1. “When we find something pleasurable or displeasurable, it is often because tens of thousands of years of brain evolution have selected for those emotions. . . .” Jamshed Bharucha, a music cognition professor at Tufts University and former editor of the journal Music Perception, adds: “Many experiences of pleasure and displeasure, including disgust, outrage, liking, pleasantness, are the result of cultural familiarity or violation thereof. In some cultures, grasshoppers and dogs are considered delicious; in other cultures, the idea of eating them would be considered revolting. People familiar with the operatic voice love it. Others hate it. I have come across teachers of Western classical voice who find the Karnatic classical voice to be nasal and ugly—it goes against everything they teach. Many highly trained classical musicians have a hard time appreciating the classical musics of other cultures. I have found some of the most skilled Indian classical musicians (of older generations, who have not had early exposure to Western music) just don’t get the big deal about Beethoven. Ditto in reverse. I always have been amazed at how indifferent so many skilled musicians are to other forms of music. This is not true of all musicians, but certainly of many.”
p. 91 “ . . .‘Suspicious Minds’. . .” James, M. (1956). Suspicious minds [Recorded by Elvis Presley]. On Suspicious Minds [45rpm record]. RCA. (1969). “Suspicious Minds” has also been recorded by Fine Young Cannibals, Dwight Yoakam, Robbie Williams, the punk band Avail, and many others.
p. 91 “Nature doesn’t build mental devices whose purpose isn’t related -92 to adaptive fitness.” Huron, D. (2005). The plural pleasures of music. Proceedings of the 2004 Music and Music Science Conference, edited by J. Sundberg and W. Brunson. Stockholm: Kungliga Musikhögskolan & KTH, p. 2.
p. 92 “Although there do exist discrete ‘pleasure centers’ in the brain, dozens of neurotransmitters and brain regions contribute to feelings of pleasure.” These two sentences are nearly direct quotes from: Huron, D. (2005). The plural pleasures of music. Proceedings of the 2004 Music and Music Science Conference, edited by J. Sundberg and W. Brunson. Stockholm: Kungliga Musikhögskolan & KTH, p. 2.
p. 94 “In one published study on music therapy, a group of Korean researchers took stroke survivors and gave them an eight-week program of physical therapy that involved synchronized movements to music.” Jeong, S. and M. T. Kim. (2007). Effects of a theory-driven music and movement program for stroke survivors in a community setting. Applied Nursing Research 20(3): 125-31.
p. 95 “In fact, in the long run, she will tend to get 25 percent of them [the cards] right.” This is because for any given “trial” (that is, each time your friend tries to guess the suit of a card) there are four possibilities: hearts, clubs, diamonds, and spades. On Trial 1 you might be looking at a spade and your friend might guess heart. On Trial 2 you might be looking at a heart and your friend might guess diamond. But on the average, your friend’s guesses will align with yours one out of four times; if she is truly guessing at random, that is, if she has no idea. For that matter, if you friend tries to be stubborn and just says “hearts” on every single trial, even though they can’t all be hearts, she will still be right on 25 percent of the trials.
p. 98 “. . . oxytocin . . .” C43H66N12O12S2. It is produced in the hypothalamus. “Serum concentrations of oxytocin increased significantly [in people who had been given singing lessons].” Grape, C., M. Sandgren, L. O. Hansson, M. Ericson, and T. Theorell. (2003). Does singing promote well-being? Integrative Physiological & Behavioral Science 38(1): 65-74. “. . . oxytocin has just been found to increase trust between people.” Kosfeld M., M. Heinrichs, P. Zak, U. Fischbacher, and E. Fehr. (2005). Oxytocin increases trust in humans. Nature 435: 673- 676. “Why oxytocin is released when people sing together is probably related evolutionarily to the social bonding function of music . . .” Freeman, W. J. (1995). Societies of Brains: A Study in the Neuroscience of Love and Hate. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
pp. 98 “Several recent studies show that IgA levels increased following -99 various forms of music therapy.” Charnetski, C. J., G. C. Strand, M. L. Olexa, L. J. Turoczi, and J. M. Rinehart. (1989). The effect of music modality on immunoglobulin A (IgA). Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 63: 73-76. Kuhn, D. (2002). The effects of active and passive participation in musical activity on the immune system as measured by salivary immunoglobulin A (SIgA). Journal of Music Therapy 39(1): 30 -39. McCraty, R., M. Atkinson, G. Rein, and A. D. Watkins. (1996). Music enhances the effect of positive emotional states on salivary IgA. Stress Medicine 12(3): 167-175. McKinney, C. H., M. H. Antoni, M. Kumar, F. C. Tims, and P. McCabe. (1997). Effects of guided imagery and music (GIM) therapy on mood and cortisol in healthy adults. Health Psychology 16(4): 390-400. McKinney, C. H., F. C. Tims, A. M. Kumar, M. Kumar. (1997). The effect of selected classical music and spontaneous imagery on plasma beta-endorphin. Journal of Behavioral Medicine 20(1): 85-99. Rider, M. S., and J. Achterberg. (1989). Effect of music-assisted imagery on neutrophils and lymphocytes. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback 14(3): 247-257. Tsao, J., T. F. Gordon, C. Dileo, and C. Lerman. (1999). The effects of music and biological imagery on immune response. Frontier Perspectives 8: 26-37.
p. 99 “In another study, levels of melatonin, norepinephrine, and epinephrine increased during a four-week course of music therapy . . .” Kumar, A. M., F. Tims, D. G. Cruess, M. J. Mintzer, G. Ironson, D. Loewenstein, et al. (1999). Music therapy increases serum melatonin levels in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine 5(6): 49 -57. “Melatonin . . .” C13H16N2O2.“. . . some researchers believe that it [melatonin] increases cytokine production, which in turn signals T-cells to travel to the site of an infection.” Carrillo-Vico, A., R. J. Reiter, P. J. Lardone, J. L. Herrera. R. Fernández-Montesinos, J. M. Guerrero, et al. (2006). The modulatory role of melatonin on immune responsiveness. Current Opinion in Investigating Drugs 7(5): 423-431. “Serotonin levels were shown to increase in real time during listening to pleasant, but not unpleasant music.” Evers, S., and B. Suhr. (2000). Changes of the neurotransmitter serotonin but not of hormones during short time music perception. European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 250(3): 144-147. “Techno music increased levels of plasma norepinephrine (NE), growth hormone (GH) . . .” Gerra, G., A. Zaimovic, D. Franchini, M. Palladino, G. Giucastro, N. Reali, et al. (1998). Neuroendocrine responses of healthy volunteers to “techno-music”: Relationships with personality traits and emotional state. International Journal of Psychophysiology 28(1): 99 -111. “. . . rock music was shown to cause decreases in prolactin . . . a hormone associated with feeling good.” Möckel, M., L. Röcker, T. Stork, J. Vollert, O. Danne, H. Eichstädt, et al. (1994). Immediate physiological responses of healthy volunteers to different types of music: Cardiovascular, hormonal and mental changes
. European Journal of Applied Physiology 68(6): 451-459.
p. 103 “. . . Sweet Anticipation . . .” Huron, D. (2006). Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. See also the excellent book review: Stevens, C., and T. Byron. (2007). Sweet anticipation: Music and the psychology of expectation. [Review of the book Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation]. Music Perception 24(5): 511-514.
p. 105 “In a paper published a few years ago in the journal Music Perception . . .” Vines, B. W., R. L. Nuzzo, and D. J. Levitin. (2005). Analyzing temporal dynamics in music: Differential calculus, physics, and functional data analysis techniques. Music Perception 23(2): 137-152.
p.106 “. . . tension tends to build up during music to a peak, after which the tension is released and subsides, often rapidly.” It is true that composers sometimes flout these conventions and write pieces with no tension, pieces that end on tension rather than resolving, and so on. But these are relatively uncommon compared to what typically occurs; indeed, their relative rarity is what gives them their power to surprise. “In performances of Indian classical music . . .” The wording for this section comes from Jamshed Bharucha.
p. 107 “. . . ‘Over the Rainbow’ . . .” Arlen, H., and E. Y. Harburg. (1939). Over the rainbow [Recorded by Judy Garland]. On Over the Rainbow [LP]. Pickwick Records. “. . . ‘She Loves You’ . . .” Lennon, J., and P. McCartney. (1963). She loves you [Recorded by The Beatles]. On She Loves You [45rpm record]. London: Parlophone Records.
p. 109 “ ‘I define joy . . . as a sustained sense of well-being and internal peace . . .’ ” Oprah Winfrey. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2008, from http://en.wiki- quote.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey, accessed March 7, 2008.
CHAPTER 4
p. 125 “In many of the places I’ve worked, music has been there as a soundtrack to help the employees get through their day.” In the 1970s (some years before my chef ’s job at Sambo’s), I worked as a dishwasher at Scoma’s, a seafood restaurant in Sausalito, California. There, we often listened to the song “Hard Work” by John Handy. The manager would play it every night at the beginning of the shift as we all scurried to make the restaurant ready for the frenzied, every-night-a-capacity-crowd dinner rush. The stress of getting all the food prepared, pots and pans clean and oiled, tables set, menus printed, and so on, was greatly relieved by music that the manager piped throughout the back room and entire restaurant over the PA. When this song came on, people’s tense shoulders would drop an inch, their footsteps become lighter, their actions become more fluid and graceful. The heavy beat of the song and its I-bVII vamp give it a sense of gravity, but the performance is so jovial and ebullient that it feels almost heliumlike in its ability to elevate drudgery and tension to purposefulness and a confidence that everything will work out right. So many songs with vamps set up a groove that in turn conveys a sense of timelessness—we forget about the clock and feel that if something goes wrong, no problem—we can just do it over again. Any thoughts that we may run out of time are vanquished by the alternate universe of the song, where the beat is marked at regular, rhythmic intervals and the song moves unflinchingly forward, but ordinary “world time” seems to stand still. Handy, J. (1976). Hard work. On Hard Work [LP]. Impulse! Records
p. 126 “Mothers from every culture sing to their infants.” For more on the evolution of behavior, see the excellent books by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy: Hrdy, S. B. (1981). The Woman That Never Evolved. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ———. (1981). Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection. New York: Pantheon.
p. 131 “. . . ‘God Bless America.’ ” Irving Berlin, a Jewish immigrant from Siberia, wrote the song in 1918. In 1938 he revised it, and it was reintroduced on Armistice Day that year, sung by Kate Smith. There have been movements over the years to adopt it officially as America’s national anthem. Woody Guthrie reportedly wrote “This Land Is Your Land” as a musical reply to “God Bless America.” ASCAP, the composers’ rights agency, reports that “God Bless America” was by far the most played song in the months following 9/11.
p. 133 “Sorrow does have an evolutionary purpose . . .” Brean, J. (December 8, 2007). Chemicals play key role in a person’s appreciation of sad music, expert says. [Electronic version]. National Post. Retrieved March 5, 2008, from http://www.nationalpost.com/Story.html?id=154661.
CHAPTER 5
p. 140 “The reason that most frogs synchronize their calls is that it makes it more difficult for predators to locate them . . .” Tuttle, M. D., and M. J. Ryan, (1982). The role of synchronized calling, ambient light, and ambient noise, in anti-bat-predator behavior of a treefrog. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 11: 125-131.
p. 141 “survival is only enhanced by sorting out fact from fiction . . .” Of course, organisms can “get ahead” by telling lies, Huron told me. So, deceptive communication can enhance survival of the deceiver. The point is not that communication should be truthful, but that organisms will have a selective advantage if they can decipher fact from fiction. One can easily imagine an arms race of deceivers trying to stay one step ahead of a developing ability to spot deceit, or vice-versa, and this does occur in the animal kingdom. “Music’s direct and preferential influence on emotional centers of the brain and on neurochemical levels supports this view [that music and brains co-evolved].” See Chapter 4.
p. 143 “By seven months, infants can remember music for as long as two weeks . . .” Saffran, J. R., M. M. Loman, and R. R. Robertson. (2000). Infant memory for musical experiences. Cognition 77(1): B15-B23. “. . . mother-infant vocal interactions exhibit striking similarities across a wide range of cultures.” Trehub, S. (2003). The developmental origins of musicality. Nature Neuroscience 6(7): 669-673. And summarized in: Cross, I. (in press). The evolutionary nature of musical meaning. Musicae Scientiae. See also, for related and relevant ideas: Cross, I. (2007). Music and cognitive evolution. In Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, edited by R. I. Dunbar and L. Barrett. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, pp. 649-667. Cross, I. (in press). Music as a communicative medium. In The Prehistory of Language (Vol. 1), edited by C. Knight and C. Henshilwood. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Cross, I. (in press). Musicality and the human capacity for culture. Musicae Scientiae. “Mothers also use these musiclike vocalizations to direct their infants’ attention . . .” Dissanayake, E. (2000). Antecedents of the temporal arts in early mother-infant interactions. In The Origins of Music, edited by N. Wallin, B. Merker, and S. Brown. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 389-407. Gratier, M. (1999). Expressions of belonging: The effect of acculturation on the rhythm and harmony of mother-infant interaction. Musicae Scientiae Special Issue: 93-112.
p. 146 “. . . some mice might have stumbled upon the fact that if they made low-pitched sounds with their throats and mouths, it might serve to intimidate other mice . . .” Owings and Morton call this “expressive size symbolism.” Owings, D. H., and E. S. Morton. (1998). Animal Vocal Communication: A New Approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. See also: Cross, I. (in press). The evolutionary nature of musical meaning. Musicae Scientiae.
p. 147 “ ‘Vicarious musical pleasure . . . seems to put a damper on musical self-expression.’ ” Robison, P. (n.d) Blackwalnut Interiors. Unpublished manuscript. I am grateful to Paula Robison’s grandson Toby Robison for providing this.
p. 152 “In the 1930s, Albert Lord and Milman Parry recorded folk songs in the mountains of (then) Yugoslavia . . .” Lord, A. B. (1960). The Singer of Tales. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
p. 152 “Some of them memorize their songs with very high accuracy . . .” -53 Lord, A. B. (1960). The Singer of Tales. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
p. 153 “The Gola of West Africa place a particularly high value on the preservation and transmission of tribal history.” D’Azevedo, W. L. (1962). Uses of the past in Gola discourse. Journal of African History 3: 11-34.
p. 154 “Oliver’s mind had brought up Mahler’s s
ong of mourning for the death of children . . .” Sacks, O. (2007). Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. New York: Knopf, p. 280. “ ‘All this time, I still remember everything you said’ ” Banks, T., P. Collins, and M. Rutherford. (1986). In too deep [Recorded by Genesis]. On Invisible Touch [CD]. Virgin Records. “ ‘I remember the smell of your skin . . .’ ” Adams, B., and R. Lange. (1993). Please forgive me [Recorded by Bryan Adams]. On So Far So Good [CD]. A&M Records.
p. 156 “. . . mutually reinforcing, multiple constraints of songs are crucially what keeps oral traditions stable over time.” Wallace, W. T., and D. C. Rubin. (1988). “The wreck of the old 97”: A real event remembered in song. In Remembering Reconsidered: Ecological and Traditional Approaches to the Study of Memory, edited by U. Neisser and E. Winograd. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 283-310.
p. 159 “. . . literal recall is seldom important.” Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. London: Cambridge University Press.
p. 160 “It may also seem . . . that your brain is not generating all the possible rhymes for a forgotten word, but research has shown that this is in fact what’s happening . . .” Kintsch, W. (1988). The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: A construction-integration model. Psychological Review 95(2): 163-182. Schwanenflugel, P. J., and K. L. LaCount. (1988). Semantic related-ness and the scope of facilitation for upcoming words in sentences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 14: 344-354.
p. 163 “. . . when singers of a given tradition are asked to write a new ballad . . . they tend to employ all of the same tools . . .” Wallace, W. T, and D. C. Rubin. (1991). Characteristics and constraints in ballads and their effects on memory. Discourse Processes 14: 181-202. “. . . they changed twenty-four words in ‘The Wreck’ to eliminate assonance, alliteration, and rhyme.” Wallace, W. T., and D. C. Rubin. (1988). “The wreck of the old 97”: A real event remembered in song. In Remembering Reconsidered: Ecological and Traditional Approaches to the Study of Memory, edited by U. Neisser and E. Winograd. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 283-310.
The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature Page 29