Music

Few studies found that our problem solving abilities are significantly increased if we listen to some classical music, especially works of Mozart.

How deep impact Mozart's sonatas may be having even on rats could be seen in New Scientist's article "Molecular basis for Mozart effect revealed".

The music and the language are very closely related. The expressiveness of our speech, for example, is heavily dependent on its rhythm and pitch. Now known oral traditions with long history like Veda, for example, shows that "stories" were practically sang (chanted) while some Australian aborigines would say that "the world was sang (chanted) into existence" by their ancestors.

Music is also considered in terms of emergence - very much like the language and culture are - as this brief abstract by Rome Harre shows.

The poetry of ancient sages was full of rhythm, pitch, rhymes and other "poetic tools" that would establish in listeners' minds associations across sometimes huge poems like Homer's Iliad. A rhythm would sometimes represent a character (or an emotion) without explicitly mentioning him (or emotion). A rhyme would invoke previously spoken words bridging time passed and forming "many-word concepts" that would otherwise be impossible to express in the spoken language.

These "poetic tools" of old sages were very much aimed at causing repeated invocations (associations) of previously expressed thoughts/images directing thoughts of listeners (through repetition) towards a "picture as a whole" of the whole poem in which each of the "elements" was re-enforcing all others. This enabled new levels of consistencies in evolution of culture.

Music also has other even more important aspects. Through the rhythm it enables listeners to feel and act (dance) in (cooperative) unison that increases a sense of belonging (or togetherness) to almost magical levels. Some kinds of (shamanistic) music seem to be also tuned to "pulses" of nature (as we perceive them) increasing a sense of togetherness with everything that surrounds us. Emotions of listeners also breathe in unison under the spell of the music raising the levels of togetherness to new levels and it is not surprising that it was (and still is) considered - magical - just like language was.

In a "reversed" sense, music is an expression of our internal rhythms, emotional flows and feelings that stem from "our description of the world and ourselves within it". Just like language - it is also an important "tool" in the transfer of the accumulated knowledge - but in a non-verbal form - more suitable for the transfer of knowledge of feelings, emotions, sense of beauty and humour than our spoken language is. (Knowledge should not be understood as the "knowledge of pure reason". I would strongly suggest that there is no "knowledge of pure reason" and that all of our knowledge is a blend of reason, emotions, feelings, sense of beauty and humour... and psycho-physical reactions.)

The importance of music in the birth and evolution of our cultures cannot be overstated. However, I would suggest that accumulation of irrational knowledge is not always constructive - especially nowadays when we are trying to focus solely to our "rational side" and sweep under the carpet our "irrational side". We should be aware that the music impacts emotions, feelings, sense of beauty and humour much more than we are usually ready to admit to ourselves. An this makes us even more susceptible to the impact of music and the raw emotions it may invoke. They are already some indications that some types of music induce violence and hatred. Unfortunately, I haven't heard of any study that has addressed this possibly negative impact.