Consciousness, Literature and the Arts

Archive

Volume 5 Number 1, April 2004

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Consciousness and Varying Musical Systems

by

Anthony J. Palmer

Introduction

            World music is often viewed in a framework of dualities. One culture's expression of music is thought to be incompatible with another's because music systems are tuned differently, temporal considerations do not match, and instruments are hardly capable of producing the necessary sounds.  Obversely, there is that deep well of human capability and desire with regard to making music from which all people draw.  Although specific cultural expressions differ at the stylistic level, there are sufficient similar, if not identical, characteristics found around the world in every music; these suggest a common source.  Such similarities are based on the neural substrates of musical capabilities.

Consciousness frequently falls into a duality also: what is not conscious must be un- or subconscious.  My view is that in consciousness, a continuum exists containing infinitesimal points between the poles of complete, but sentient detachment on the one hand, and acute awareness on the other.  Moreover, we operate out of multifarious levels that we deem appropriate to the context.  Music production falls along the same lines as consciousness.  As John Blacking states, "[t]here is a difference between music that is occasional and music that enhances human consciousness, music that is simply for having and music that is for being" (Blacking, 1973, 50).  John Blacking spent much time in Africa with the Venda, which altered his Western views of music permanently.  His statement notwithstanding, all music is highly organized and therefore must come from a designed structure that permits “music that is simply for having.” 

Previously, I examined some dimensions of this seeming duality posed by differing music systems; on the surface they are incompatible, but derive their driving force from the deep structures of human musicality (Palmer, 1997).  Now, this paper is designed to investigate the relation between consciousness and the cultural expressions of music.  Although answers to the following question will not be forthcoming in this exploration, I ask the reader to keep in mind, as an implicit purpose of the discussion, the question: What directions could specific research take in examining the ties among music as practiced, music as conceptualized, and consciousness as a unique quality of humankind?

The following deliberation is based on three premises: 1) that music is a reflection of the workings of the mind; 2) that by studying the workings of the musical mind we might be led to a better understanding of human consciousness; and finally, 3) by studying the musical mind through the systems of music in various parts of the world, aspects of music's mental constructs heretofore unseen may be revealed.  Africanist Blacking remarks appropriately, ". . a perception of sonic order [what we call music], whether it be innate or learned, or both, must be in the mind before it emerges as music” (Blacking, 11).  He states further an important consideration for the purpose of this study.

At some level of analysis, all musical behavior is structured, whether in relation to biological, psychological, sociological, cultural, or purely musical processes; and it is the task . . . to identify all processes that are relevant to an explanation of musical sound (Blacking, 17)

Finally, he states that

[e]very composer has a basic cognitive system that sets its stamp on his major works, regardless of the ensembles for which they were written.  This . . . system includes all cerebral activity involved in his motor coordination, feelings, and cultural experiences, as well as his social, intellectual, and musical activities.  An accurate and comprehensive description of a composer's cognitive system will, therefore, provide the most fundamental and powerful explanation of the patterns that his music takes.  Similarly, the musical styles current in a society will be best understood as expressions of cognitive processes that may be observed to operate in the formation of other structures.  When we know how these cognitive processes work in producing the patterns of sound different societies call "music," we shall be in a better position to find out how musical man is (Blacking, 24-25).

Not only are we concerned with "how musical man is," but also what has consciousness to do with it.  From observations of some of the great differences in various musical systems, it appears obvious that these contrasts could not have come from the same consciousness of the world, albeit coming from the same physiological organism.  By studying similarities and differences in musical systems, and how humans have made music, we may discover some new directions to study both consciousness and human cognitive musical processes.

Consciousness Defined

            It is important to establish some criteria of consciousness upon which we can enter this investigation.  Reading the material neuroscientists (Minksky, 1986; Ornstein, 1991; and Restak, 1988),¹   one could conclude that mind and brain are identical; therefore, consciousness is the physiological operation of the organ, however complex and difficult to delineate that may be.  Theoretically, as the operation is studied, definitions of consciousness will evolve.

            Whereas problems abound in the study and definition of consciousness (see, for example, Gray, 1995; and Güzeldere, 1995), there are some employable gauges that can serve the needs of this paper, as follows.  There is no center for consciousness; various parts of the entire brain are always involved.  We are aware of being aware. Through sense perception, we build representations of reality in the mind and use those constructs to relate to the world.  We have awareness of our most recent memories and constantly call upon past events to construct the present.  We are capable of reflection and utilize that capacity to evaluate the present and project the future.  Certainly, consciousness also involves the capacity to create anew out of seemingly disparate materials.  Consciousness involves awareness of time and place, material and process, and metaphysical as well as mundane ideas of existence. 

The emphasis, as previously stated, is on consciousness.  That musical activity occurs at the unconscious or subconscious level, however, is undeniable, although presently, that is not the focus here.  One could liken the unconscious aspects to the depths of a river where only the upper levels of activity are apparent.  Innate drives, dispositions, inclinations, and other leanings resulting from genetic disposition and formational experiences are virtually impossible to identify and connect directly to overt action, certainly the worthy subject of a completely different study.  There is, however, a general pattern of musical utility.  Marvin Minsky draws a description of language from John L. Roget that applies perfectly to a consideration of music and the unconscious steps of processing musical data.

The use of language [music] is not confined to its being the medium through which we communicate ideas to one another . . . . Words [tones] are the instrument by which we form all our abstractions, by which we fashion and embody our ideas, and by which we are enabled to glide along a series of premises and conclusions with a rapidity so great as to leave in memory no trace of the successive steps of this process; and we remain unconscious of how much we owe to this (Minsky, 192).

The steps by which musical systems are constructed for a culture’s communication system can only be connected on larger planes of reference.  No single step can be identified with any certitude for any single composer or a whole culture.

            It will be sufficient to say that the evolution of a system is dependent on conscious efforts to interpret experiential phenomena, whether these occur by accident, by toying with possibilities, or by the sheer accumulation of collective insights.  Nevertheless, an effort to make choices can only come from both intrinsic and extrinsic pressures to produce a final and appropriate result.

Music Briefly Considered

As to the origins of music, no physical evidence exists that would lead us to any definite conclusion.  I have argued in another venue that its origins may lie in the relationship between mother and child: as she coos and rocks the neonate, the resultant bonding causes a more mature growth of the neural system during its early life (Palmer).  However music began, it is a universal phenomenon—not a universal language as some romantically contend—that commands a great deal of attention in every culture.  Even in the American culture, where music is one of the first curricular subjects to be eliminated from the schools when tight budgets prevail, we cannot do without music.  For example, the popular music scene—recordings, film, television, dance music, musicals, background music in all aspects of the social environment—is worth billions of dollars in the commerce of the nation.

            A definition of music that transcends cultural boundaries would point to five fundamental components that make up any sonic texture that the culture calls music.  Whether a music product is instantaneously fabricated as in improvisation, or created over longer periods of time in a reflective manner, and whether the product is singly constructed as in the case of the traditional Western art composer—a Mozart or a Stravinsky—or composed by a group process as with many Native Americans, the composer or composers must make decisions about certain properties.  How long should a tone endure, at what frequency must it vibrate, what should make the sound, how should the sound be made relative to dynamics, attacks, sustain, etc., and into what kind of pattern should the complex of tone and time be placed?  In other words:  time, pitch, medium, musical expression, and form are the components or variables in the equation that are manipulated through conscious intent.

            To some extent the discussion is grounded in the fact that the conscious act of making music is subject to limitations of human biology.  We cannot perceive beyond certain parameters, that is, hearing is limited to the frequencies of about 25 to 18,000 Hz., with music functioning between 50 to 15,000 Hz.  Intensity of sound is limited to 120 dB before the onset of physical pain.  Quality of tone is quite variable and sometimes confuses how we hear pitch and intensity (Askill, 1979, Ch. 4).  The information theorists showed some decades ago our limitations in absolute judgment and memory capabilities of various phenomena including music.  George A. Miller's study concluded that any units of information beyond approximately seven were not retained in short-term memory (Miller, 1956, 63), thus, the phenomenon probably has had an effect on the length of phrases, sections, and repetitions.  Additionally, musical perception studies also revealed limitations in the amount of change in aural phenomena that is detectable by human perception, for example, between two pitches, and also two durational patterns (Gordon, 1980; Seashore, 1938).

            We are also enabled by our capacities, both mental and physical.  Relying on the neural system's pathways, communicative loops carry signals back and forth between the various body parts and the brain.  Tactile sensations and kinesthetic perceptions are as much a part of our functioning as any mental abstractions.  I conjecture here that these are as important as aural perceptions and feed the totality of what we call music.  We know that even silent, motionless listeners register physiological responses to music like heart rate and other measurable attributes.  The actions of brain and body are merely aspects of a singular organism whose sum is significantly greater than the individual parts.  While the brain is basic to the mind, volition does not seem to reside in any specific physical location of the brain and can differ greatly among individuals.  We are complex creatures; our conscious existence becomes manifest through mental (processing of phenomena), physical (action), moral (judgment), and aesthetic (value) dimensions.  All  aspects of human existence unite in forming the consciousness of musical possibilities.

            Outside of our subjective perceptions of musical sounds, it is important to take note of the physics of sound that lie at music's  base.  Whether a culture prefers certain intervals or others, the fact is that proportions of a string, for example, still produce certain vibrations according to mathematical divisions.  There are several basic physical properties that exist regardless of cultural context in which sounds are interpreted.  For example, a similar overtone series will be produced from a cylindrical tube whether made of bamboo, wood, bone, metal, or plastic, whenever and wherever it might be found.

            Music, however, is more than its physical properties and physiological effects on the human organism.  Its qualities lie primarily in the subjective realm of experience, the perception of musical sounds, their assigned meanings, and their ascribed powers to generate metaphysical states of existence.  Heightened levels of consciousness lead to strongly prescribed methods of constructing sound systems.  Selections from the system of specific sounds for designated functions are a norm.  India classifies its ragas into seasonal and hourly divisions.  The traditional Catholic Church called for specific modes for certain celebrations.  American popular music has a wide variety of repertoire that points to specific contexts for performance.  These kinds of applications of musical entities are the norm.

It is the heightened level of consciousness, one might call it metanormal functioning, that interests me.  Michael Murphy describes special attributes of an emergent level of development in the human species.  For example:

Extraordinary perceptions of things outside the organism  . . .

Extraordinary somatic awarenesses and self-regulation.

Superabundant vitality that is difficult to account for in terms of ordinary bodily processes.

Extraordinary movement abilities (Murphy, 1992, 27).

These are but four selected from  a dozen attributes discussed.

            Although Murphy believes that these qualities are becoming part of the norm, it is my contention that the human community has always had individuals within their midst who rose to extraordinary heights of consciousness about their existence and the world in which they lived.  While a Buddha or a Jesus might come to mind immediately, we must include the shamans and mystics, artists and musicians who rise to extraordinary heights while retaining the here and now earthly form.  And because of different experiences in time and place of each group, a different consciousness arose.  This is the realm of our discussion and why musics around the world differ as they do, at least at the surface or stylistic level. 

Simultaneously, although not the primary subject, I propose that various musics do find fundamental similarities because of the human disposition toward organizing sounds into useable structures that can be drawn upon to express the deepest concerns about one's place in the world.  By extension, proving a metaphysical truth—were one to exist—is nigh impossible on scientific grounds, yet there is a consciousness about the awesome power of nature that seems to be built into the neural system.  Coming from unconscious sources—at least thus far remaining unidentified—human groups create gods and goddesses, personalize their existence, and rely on their extraordinary powers to violate seemingly inviolable natural laws to govern human conduct and consequences.

Pitch

               Consider the structure of a scale derived from the pitches that make up the musical repertoire of a group.  Whether the scale arises from the consecutive lifting of fingers on an aerophone which furnishes tunes with certain patterns, or whether the scale is a resulting sonic description of musical practice is unimportant.  Scales arise from the organization of several satellite tones around a center which are memorable and reproducible.  It is rare to find music in any part of the world that does not adhere to some kind of tonal center.²  Polynesian chant furnishes a fine example of maintaining a principal tone from which inflected tones deviate (Kanahele, 1979, 57-58).  Although much of the world's music is in oral tradition, the consistency of application of a pitch system completely dismisses the idea that pitch galaxies are accidental.  The appearance of these miniature worlds seems highly purposeful.

            There is an argument to be made for those systems that arise from the culture through a process of incremental change and broadening of the artistic view.  That seems to have been the pathway that cultures have taken.  In other words, those who would make a radical break with present tradition, especially where the system was devised by a single person or exclusive group, the adaptation to the culture at large was not well accepted or deemed viable in the broad context of cultural expression.  I point to just two examples in the West where the ultimate end of newly developed systems were rejected for normative music practice.

            Arnold Schoenberg, for one, presents an excellent example of a musical system devised to supplant the standard Western tonal system.  He came to the conclusion that tonal music could not develop any further in the Wagnerian-Straussian direction and sought to emancipate dissonance.  Making his way through a highly chromatic path in his early works, he finally constructed a system that gave each of the twelve pitches equal status.  The basic idea was to use each of the 12 tones at least once before being used again, both melodically and harmonically, removing primacy from any single pitch.  Thus, he was able to manipulate a set series in various permutations, e.g., inverted, retrograde, and retrograde inversion.  Transfigured Night and Pierre Lunnaire are superb examples of Schoenberg's musings that illustrate tonal center ambiguity on the way to such a 12-tone work like Moses und Aaron.  Schoenberg had numerous adherents in both composers and performers, and dodecaphonic music was de rigueur for young art music composers for much of the decades following World War I.   However, on entering the twenty-first century, the dodecaphonic repertoire is not in the mainstream, largely because, in my opinion, the audiences find the music difficult in which to participate because there is no pitch center to give reference to the other tones.  Also, from a perceptual point of view, such serial music belies human capabilities to register necessary tonal references.³

Harry Partch also constructed a novel pitch system.  His forays into new intervalic ratios resulted in a highly idiosyncratic 43-tone scale within the 2:1 ratio (Dery, 1990, 49-59).  He developed his own notational system to accommodate the new approach.  His procedures required a totally new instrumental ensemble to play his creations and, because of the intricacy of some of the instruments he invented, musicians had to be trained to play them.  Vocal sounds were as much a part of the music as the instruments and this also required special training.  Moreover, the performances were visual events requiring the musicians to dress and move in particular ways consistent with the artistic intent.  Although the instrumental ensemble so carefully created by Partch over many years of experimentation and performance now lies still, he made an original contribution to contemporary music.  While his 43-tone scale is silent, his pioneering spirit is part of Americana and finds echoes in that guise in modern composition.⁴

            Other examples of conscious pitch construction can be found in Asia.  The story is told in China of Hôang-ti, reputed founder of the Chinese Empire, who sent Ling-lun to the mountains in 2486 B.C.E. to obtain the correct tones to harmonize the earthly kingdom with heaven.  He found some pretty bamboo of the same height, cut one of the reeds and blew upon it.  Two birds in the vicinity imitated the sounds, first one with six tones, then the other with another set of six tones.  Ling-lun cut eleven other bamboo pieces to match the sounds of the birds and thereby established the scale of twelve tones which now form the chromatic scale (Chao-Mei-Pa, 1934, 13; Van Aalst, 1966, 6-13).⁵

Truth is as often disguised through myths, but underlying principles are revealed just as surely as in empirical events.  Musicians were sent out to retune the royal instruments as each new emperor took the throne.  However, the Chinese system remained unchanged for thousands of years as far as we know,  We can assume a quite practical solution to the problem of pitch, and that is that the actual intonation and pitch levels were not changed despite the ordered retuning (Rao, et al, 1987, 547-562).  Musicians, ancient Chinese or contemporary, like most segments of society, do not respond to edicts easily.  On practical grounds, they find ways to satisfy without capitulating, witness the examples of Soviet Socialist Realism in the mid twentieth century and how the composers worked around and through governmental edits on artistic styles (Slonimsky, 1985). 

As in early Greek history, numbers played an important part in Chinese cosmogony.  As Chao-Mei-Pa stated, ". . . the number twelve formed a group found in different combinations of nature or life which allows the establishment of some symbolical agreement between sounds and natural phenomena” (Chao-Mei-Pa, 15).  In effect, the process was to proportion the tubes by the simple ratio of 3:2.  For example, nine-inch  and six-inch bamboo tubes will produce two tones that we know as the interval of the fifth.  Then doubling the next reduction of two thirds (that is, four thirds) will give a pitch one whole tone above the original tube.  In other words, in contemporary parlance, one would go up a fifth, down a fourth, up a fifth, down a fourth, etc., until all twelve pitches are obtained.  Each set of six tones, in order of fifths, would be, using present Western labels: c, g, d, a, e, b and c#, g#, d#, a#, e#, b#.  These two sets in Chinese cosmogony easily took on female and male categories, Yin and Yang.  In addition, all of these tones had correspondences to various aspects of life, for example, months of the year, lunar cycles, natural phenomena, etc., all in all, a quite elaborate philosophical system.  The innate structure of simple numbers allowed numerous variations that took on a life of true representations of reality as perceived through the lens of Chinese philosophy (Van Aalst, 1966, 6-13).⁶

            The Western system derives from, or at least, has some sense of continuity with, Greek theory.  We know that numbers in Greek cosmology were immensely important.  A couple of millennia later than the Chinese musicians, we find much the same approach made by Pythagoras.  Although Pythagoras used strings and their divisions, he arrived at essentially the same ratios as the Chinese.  Stopping a string midway produces a 2:1 ratio, what we now term the octave; at two-thirds of the string, one hears the fifth, a 3:2 ratio; at the three-fourths point, a 4:3 ratio, the fourth occurs.  These sounds—fourths, fifths, and octaves—were considered consonant because of their simple ratios (Helmholtz, 1954, 228-229).  The seconds, thirds, sixths, and sevenths ultimately obtained were considered dissonant because of the complexity of their ratios.

            Lyres, harps and like instruments have numerous strings that are tuned according to the culture's musical system.  Multiple strings show implicitly that a tuning system did exist, that each string was there to produce a different pitch.  There is more direct evidence, however, than implication would give us.  Fretted instruments represent immediate evidence of consciousness toward proportioned lengths of string.  Each succeeding fret is placed closer to the next to account for the proper ratio in the decreased string length, a dictate of physics, which, we must assume, was consciously discovered.

            The present scales used predominantly in the West, the major and minor modes, with a few left-overs occasionally heard like Dorian or Mixolydian, are now tuned slightly differently than their original forms in pre-Classic Greece.  When one multiplies the fifths (so-called Perfect) to obtain all twelve tones, there is an expanded spectrum of approximately 24 cents termed the Pythagorean comma—the present measurement of a semitone is 100 cents—so that twelve fifths tuned according to ratio, arrive at the last fifth about a quarter of a semitone sharp.  The natural Pythagorean and other natural scales were finally dispensed with and tempered tuning came to the fore.  The famous work by Bach, the Well-Tempered Clavier, is a culmination of adjusted tuning where all twelve keys in major and minor tonality could be played on the same instrument, a heretofore impossible task.  Nevertheless, albeit tempered tuning as the model, Western musicians do not play in absolute temper, but rather adjust their pitches according to the tonal center (Butler, 1992).  What the foregoing supports, in its very limited exposition, is that humans were not simply taking sounds readily available to them and making noise, so to speak, as the occasion demanded.  The way that sounds were constructed had the most painstaking attention paid to their formation, requiring consciousness of the highest order.

There is another aspect of pitch that tends to support a conscious choice of terminology that reflects purposeful conceptualizations.  When the term octave was first used in the West for two tones at a 2:1 ratio, it was with the tacit but crucial understanding that a heptatonic scale existed, and that numbers were the basis for designating scale degrees, the repeat of the first tone being number eight or octave (Sachs, 1943, Sections III, Chaps. 2 and 3, and IV, Chap. 3).⁷  Further, equitempered tuning is at least implied in present day interpretation.  When the terms high and low are used to designate pitches, it is also a Western psychological interpretation of musical phenomena, repeated in the values placed on staff notation.  Other cultures have their own terms and their own conceptualizations of the same phenomenon.  For example, traditional Korean music employs the terms ch'ongsông (meaning clear and standing for above), and t'aksông (meaning rough, unpolished and standing for below), both describing the 2:1 ratio phenomenon.  Javanese musicians use the term gembyang for the phenomenon of the 2:1 ratio because the slendro  scale is not heptatonic and pelog scales, while heptatonic, are not conceptualized in that manner.  The pelog form is still fundamentally a pentatonic structure with two additional tones acting as subsidiary to the core tones.  Therefore, the word octave is simply an inaccurate term to describe various non-heptatonic scales.  The Javanese also use alit (small) and ageng (large) that describe the sizes of the gongs and their respective pitches, which is analogous to Western high and low, a conceptually different but also psychologically accurate description of the same phenomenon.⁸

To put terminology in perspective, it is as though Westerners related pitches to the horizontal keyboard on piano and asked the student to play the tone to the right or left as the case may be, rather than higher or lower (Ristad, 1982).⁹  Further ambiguities append when the terms loud and soft are used to point to dynamic levels in Spanish. Their words for loud and soft are directly translated as high and low respectively (alto and bajo) and need clarification for the uninitiated. 

The point of this discussion is, once again, that each group develops its systems with certain conceptions and proceeds, if not systematically, at least purposefully.  Whether the expansion of present musical systems is achieved to appease a god, an audience, a ritual, or an entertainment, the music makers are on a journey with ears toward appropriate sounds to match the needs of the culture.

Time

Curt Sachs states a generally regarded idea, that of all the animal kingdom, "[humankind] alone is gifted with conscious rhythm."  He continues:

When he has reached this consciousness, and experienced the stimulation and comfort that rhythm gives, he cannot refrain from rhythmic movement, from dancing, stamping the ground, clapping his hands, slapping his abdomen, his chest, his legs, his buttocks (Sachs, 1962, 26).

Sachs is stating the obvious, that there is an intimate relationship between sound and movement, especially when sounds are made in a continuous patterned effort that we find in music.

            As there is a unique relationship between music and human acoustical capabilities, anatomy also determines music's structure.  For example, in the West, marches are necessarily in duple meter as the sonic stimulus to match the anatomy of two legs and feet that carry the torso forward in linear fashion.  The dance movements of members of Sub-Saharan African nations, whose music abides by a fast density referent, upon which is built polymetric strata, give an excellent example of how the body responds to a multiplicity of rhythmic organization.  Taken in reverse, the music is structured to support specific spiritual representations of life's experiences.  The dancers move various parts of their bodies to the various strata of the musical fabric in an imitation of nature and non-human life, and in the depiction of  psychological and allegorical states.  The intimate relationship between the movements of the dancer and the structure of the music is impossible to assess separately.

The matter of time, then, is no less intricate than pitch.  The basic idea of non-pitched sounds causes cultures to differentiate between sounds that are considered to be music and those that are called noise (Cage, 1966; Merriam, 1964).  For example, pounding on a table with the flat of the hand is noise under most conditions.  However, organized into rhythmic and metrical patterns in a musical context suddenly qualifies the sound as musical.  All cultures utilize non-pitched sounds in their musical systems.  Membranophones and solid bodied instruments are used to construct simple to extremely complex time sequences.  From sub-Saharan Africa with its complex polymetrical and stratified units to Asia where drums control the pace and articulation of the melodic sounds as in Japanese Gagaku, noise factors in ordinary circumstances become necessary entities in the musical fabric.

Instruments and Culture

Musical ideas of pitch and time coalesce when membranophones are tuned to specific pitches.  Frequently related to metaphysical ideas, drums can be classified as male and female as in Indian Karnatic music, they are connected to certain gods as in various groups across the world, and certain drums are found as residence for ancestral spirits as in Ghana.  Although timpani in the West are also tuned and used to reinforce the harmonic structure, particularly in the strongly accented tonic-dominant Classical period of Mozart and Haydn, they lack the metaphysical qualities and connotations that still prevail in other parts of the world.  Yet, used decisively in a work such as the Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz, the timpani take on a spiritual meaning—in its programmatic intent—beyond a mere time keeping device.

Spirituality has been a constant stimulus for design and construction in the panoply of instruments throughout human history.  While numerous myths supply questionable sources for these inventions, the fact that instruments are imbued with special character and power merely says something about the psychological disposition of humankind, and points to purposeful actions designed to negotiate perceived realities.  The Jewish shofar, African royal drums,  and Buddhist bells are but three of numerous examples of instruments infused with special qualities.  The microcosm of Chinese music representing the macrocosm of creation is further evidence of the need to sanctify the physical world.  Each Chinese instrument embodies some spiritual character.  Polynesia can be quite well represented by Hawaiian hula, which is total in its representation of the spiritual realities of the Hawaiian people.  Hula was music, dance, ritual worship and sacred practice, and their cosmogony all rolled into one single event.  The drums were spirit-filled enabling the people to enter another world.  This practice can be abundantly illustrated in all parts of the world.

Conclusion

The examples noted here are all consciously conceived out of the cultural fabric of the society served.  Music is first and foremost a communication of some sort.  Communication can only be based upon mutually agreed ideas even when music lacks denotative qualities as does language.  These ideas are put forth, tested for cultural validity and either retained or rejected.  Convention thus arises from the constant use of some aspect of an idea.  The convergence of several pitches around a principal pitch, what we call tonality, is such an idea.  Interpretation of an idea changes, however, as it takes on new contexts.  Western music history represents a typical pattern in that respect.  The use of tonality over the previous 1500 years has had numerous and different applications, and its presence in contemporary American music as we enter the twenty-first century is novel as well.  Underlying tonal principles might remain constant, and even instruments retain original forms, but as the principle might act as a skeleton, fleshed out it sounds decidedly new.  The same instruments that played the older traditional styles may be asked to play in a different manner, and may even be altered to satisfy the new demands.  With such changes, it may appear to some that music is progressive.  In reality, music fits the needs of the culture at a particular time whatever its structure.  Simple to complex, ranging from uncomplicated technique for practiced amateurs to highly involved music demanding professional performance, the music changes with the culture, not the reverse as Plato opined centuries ago.

Yet, composers, each within their context, do frequently accurately portray something that their audiences understand implicitly, if not explicitly.  As to single musical elements, none by itself will determine a resultant dimension like mood; certain combinations of elements in a particular relationship might convey expressive qualities within the context of the culture.  To use a Western  example frequently experienced in the United States, a slow pulse—time—in minor mode—pitch—can hardly be expected to be interpreted as bright and cheerful.  In the Italian tarantella, however, minor modes prevail; but because of the fast tempo these dances are usually considered energetic and require fast dancing movements.  Funereal music in the West is usually somber befitting the removal  of the deceased from loved ones.  Francis Bebey counters that for the ". . . African, [he] confronts death with the rhythms and music of life” (Bebey, 1975, 126).  Music is a complex of tones in time that depend upon an intricate relationship among the components to rise to any level of expressive communication.  Music, singularly or collectively composed, takes on certain patterns that have gained connotative qualities, and are then used to reinforce psychological or physiological states.

            Such correspondences can be found in virtually every culture, although, the complexities of thought toward musical phenomena prevent one-to-one relationships (Lomax, 1976).  This suggests that all music represents a broad and deep consideration of the materials each group uses to form the sounds it calls music.  Whatever the source of stimulation to make selections of musical tones and their duration—phenomenal, experiential, trial and error, metaphysical, pragmatic—the result is the group's conscious effort to meet and satisfy the perceived realities of life.  Those musical works that challenge the status quo, but are nevertheless successful, are grounded in some way in the culture.  At first presentation, there may be only a small segment of people to whom the music appeals.  To enter the mainstream however, these new musical works must stand the tests of time and quality.  The new works either gain access or go the way of artistic footnotes in the ongoing stream of the musical culture.  Occasionally, their influence is felt at a later time.  All in all, music within a culture is like a river that carries multitudinous boats of many different sizes and purposes, all consciously steered toward some port.

            To conclude, the human community has a need to organize sounds into what we term a musical fabric in a way that communicates at the deep levels of consciousness. The laws of physics and biological functioning may determine an overall set of boundaries, but within those limits, musical expression and style is intricately tied to the psychological dispositions of the cultural members.  Whether the purpose of the music is discerned with accuracy does not change the thrust of musical composition to be purposeful and to be expressive of some deeper need of the individual and the community.  Music, in the last analysis and as an active engagement of human capability and consciousness, is an effort to explain existence through non-verbal and artistic events.  The higher the level of consciousness and awareness of life of the group, the greater the demands will be placed on the music system and its expressive forms to reflect robustly the culture's desires and concerns.  

Endnotes

¹ There are some disagreements with this group by metaphysicians such as Willis Harman and Michael Murphy (see Bibliography).  I take a different view:  While there may be no metaphysical origins of humankind, we possess metanormal capabilities that cannot be explained presently in physiological terms.

² There seems to be a human disposition toward comparisons, e.g., hot-cold, high-low, large-small, etc.  By removing tonal centers, one removes the reference points so that there is no longer a comparison possible.  Reference points are extremely important in cognitive processing.

³ This is not to say that serial music is not composed or performed.  It is used, particularly in motion picture scores, for example, where ambiguity of pitch center is highly desirable to underscore particular kinds of action.  My view is based on the mainstream of performance repertoire.

⁴ Partch also violated the rule of seven (Ibid. Miller).

⁵ Chao-Mei-Pa and Van Aalst actually have the more accurate story.

⁶ See also Rao Yu-an, Edward C. Carterette and Wu Yu-kui for additional verification of Chinese scalar comparisons.

⁷ Presently, octave is used in a general way to talk about the 2:1 ratio of pitch.  Moreover, the idea of a gap scale (pentatonic, etc.) is in reference to a heptatonic structure with the Greek letter names a through g.  Gaps cannot exist without something missing, and therefore, the idea of a gap scale may be inaccurate when applied outside of Western music.  For example, in Javanese pelog tuning, nothing is missing.  See Curt Sachs for an extensive discussion of the problems ethnomusicologists first faced in assessing tuning and for discussions of various scales outside the Western system.

⁸ This comes from discussions with Professors Byongwon Lee, Korean musician, and Hardja Susilo, Indonesian dancer and musician, both ethnomusicologists at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

⁹ Eloise Ristad has a revealing discussion on improving a student's understanding of notation by turning the score to correspond to the piano keyboard.

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