Consciousness, Literature and the Arts

Archive

Volume 10 Number 1, April 2009

___________________________________________________________________

Unconscious Apprehension of Metapatterns Expressed Consciously Through Musical Form

by

Anthony J.  Palmer

Boston University

Context

This article is designed to be read by those who have minimal musical background as well as those who have considerable musical experience.  For the latter, where explanations are obvious, they will no doubt skip to the parts that require their attention. 

The article presents a thesis that the fundamental perceptual capabilities of the human species lie below conscious level.  Thus, there are numerous explanations of the metapatterns that may appear obvious to some.  Nevertheless, in consideration of those who are meeting this idea for the first time, more detailed information is included as an aid to understanding.

Finally, the article frequently is recommended to students of varying levels, in addition to professionals already in the field, and therefore requires the kinds of explanations given.

Introduction

[Slide 1: Title]

[This essay is linked to a power point presentation with embedded music examples. Click this link, now. It will open the power point show as a movie, which you can pause where necessary.]

            Music education programs draw on a variety of disciplines, not least of which are science and philosophy.  How these intersect and form the basis for increasing musical and artistic sensitivity is a subject worth pondering.  At first glance, observational and experimental science as a process of inquiry versus philosophy as a means of arriving at another kind of truth, seem to be somewhat at odds in their methodologies.  They were not always thought so.  With a careful reading of history, one can point to Aristotle who is admired as both a scientist and philosopher.  Sir Francis Bacon, although differing from Aristotle in his views, nevertheless was also both a philosopher and scientist.  In the interest of exploration, we can agree with Will Durant that these two areas have a relationship that cannot be severed.  He states that “[e]very science begins as philosophy and ends as art.”[i]  We must assume that science begins in the form of ideation and postulation, that is, philosophy, and then becomes observation and experiment, that is, science.  

            I wish to speculate on Durant’s sequence by advancing a belief, a philosophical idea that becomes science in its application, eventually arriving at an art that is sometimes inexplicable without deeper scrutiny and analysis.  Examining the structure of music, one can conclude that certain principles undergird what we label and identify superficially by various names without the realization that there is something quite profound about how we have arrived at these arrangements and dispositions.

            An idea basic to this paper is that all thought and action as process, and phenomena as substance, are unified in their fundamental existence.  Any seeming differences result from differing perceptions of reality because of the various forms taken at the perceptual level.  To proceed to examine musical structure, I propose three postulates:

1.  all substance in the universe, including mammalian life, is of the same constitution;

2.  all existence relies on what Tyler Volk calls metapatterns for physical and mental formulations; and 

3.  the human mind is an extension of nature and unconsciously draws upon metapatterns to construct the world at the conscious level. 

I will discuss these briefly to lay the ground for examining how the perception of music is a reflection of our basic human substance as an integral part of the universe, both in physiology and mentality.

Unity

            My first premise, that all existence is unified, a fundamental belief for my thesis, begins with Richard Feynman’s assertion that

[t]he internal machinery of life, the chemistry of the parts, is something beautiful.  And it turns out that all life is interconnected with all other life.  . . . it has been discovered that all the world is made of the same atoms, that the stars are of the same stuff as ourselves.[ii] A logical extension of that thought suggests that everything obeys the same fundamental laws.  Further, any overt expressions of those laws, be it in physical structure or in life processes, will reflect an organization consistent with the laws.

            One could cite a number of scientists who support Feynman’s view.  Leonard Shlain believes that the artist and the physicist both try to define the nature of reality but through different means.[iii]  E. O. Wilson suggests that through linking the sciences and humanities, all knowledge will be found to be integrated.[iv]  He expresses poetically our responsibilities in this passage: Because all organisms have descended from a common ancestor, it is correct to say that the biosphere as a whole began to think when humanity was born.  If the rest of life is the body, we are the mind.  Thus, our place in nature, viewed from an ethical perspective, is to think about the creation and to protect the living planet.[v]

Lawrence M. Krauss as well suggests that “[o]ur atoms are vibrant messengers from the past, and harbingers of the future.  They connect us in a definite way to everything we can see about us,”[vi

Metapatterns

            The second premise, based on Volk’s idea, states that all existence relies on metapatterns for physical and mental formations.  He states that certain underlying patterns exist at both the macro and micro levels and when a pattern is “so wide-flung that it appears throughout the spectrum of reality . . . ” then we are dealing with metapatterns that find their existence “in clouds, rivers, and planets; in cells, organisms, and ecosystems; in art, architecture, and politics.”[vii]

            Unlike Plato's ideal forms or Jung’s archetypes, metapatterns are found in the physical nature of all things that allows a constant re-formulation into new and unexpected arrangements.  From atoms to molecules through single cell amoeba to the complexities of the human brain, the universe adheres to pattern.  The mind, as an extension of brain, likewise functions out of the physical properties of neurons and chemically stimulated synapses.  Although mind is much too complex to discuss in the confines of this paper, numerous authors suggest that the human mind is really several different minds, a result of evolutionary processes producing the tripartite brain.[viii]  Qualities of feeling and emotion are resultants that arise from sensory input, but because of minuscule structural differences in the brain peculiar to each person, these qualities are interpreted through our individual propensities, inclinations, and attitudes.  All, however, function on the basis of the underlying principles inherent in the make-up of the universe. [ix

Mind as an Extension of Nature

            My third and major premise is that the human mind, as an extension of nature, unconsciously draws upon metapatterns to construct the world at the conscious level.  I will present a few of these metapatterns, and then show how they could be applied to musical structure.  I believe that the way music is fashioned is not an accidental incident of culture.  While all cultures express their music according to the group’s preferences, different from others, such cultural styles are related to root elements.  The mind is predisposed to unconsciously apprehend these patterns and utilize them to formulate expressions, both physical and mental.

            Making music is as natural to the human community as breathing, stemming from a genetic and psychological imperative.[x]  We are limited only by our capabilities, for example, the range of frequencies that can be detected, the aural ability to discriminate pitch, loudness, metric organization, and timbre, plus the psychological disposition to express ourselves through what we call music.  A chart may help to represent this idea.  [Slide 2: Dynamic Illustration]  The vertical lines represent all of the musical experience of the human species.  Pattern in music is extracted from the deep well as indicated.  Above the wavy line lies a representation of the way music is made according to the group and its experience in the world.  The wavy line indicates that this is a constantly changing dynamic process that flows in both directions: upward as the unconscious apprehension of metapatterns, downward as a reinforcement of the basic makeup of the species.

Metapatterns and Their Application to Music

Spheres

What I borrowed from Volk is only a small portion of his thesis.  Of the several patterns hypothesized, I will begin with spheres, illustrated through explanatory visuals and auditory musical examples. 

[Slide 3: Sphere—Volk]

            The sphere, represented by a circle, has essential qualities of the circle, but in three dimensions, as in the cell, a fundamental property that constitutes all living organisms.  In addition, we can consider the sphere as our psychological center as we seek the universal, the “sphere of experience and explanation,” that makes us “more well rounded, more complete and whole.”[xi] 

            In applying the sphere to music, it seems that most music around the world adheres to a center, around which all other tones revolve.[xii]  This tonal center gives us relationships, without which, music would be a cacophony without order and organization.  Put another way, the human mind constructs only what it can understand, and it understands metapatterns intuitively, particularly the idea of a focal point to establish relationships.

            A major key in Western musical conventions implies a complex of tones that have built-in tensions, particularly between the Tonic and the Dominant, illustrated here. [Slide 4: Major]  This is also true of the minor mode, strongly felt when the Dominant is altered to a major chord. [Slide 5: Minor]  Music examples show this clearly.

[Slide 6: Major Scale and Musical Example 1: Lawes]

[Slide 7: Minor Scale and Musical Example 2: Vivaldi]

Here are other versions of tonal organizations including sound examples.

[Slide 8: Japanese In-Sen Mode and Musical Example 3: O Edo Nihonbashi.]

[Slide 9: Javanese slendro and Musical Example 4: Javanese Slendro]

[Slide 10: Javanese pelog and Musical Example 5: Javanese Pelog]

Borders

            The second pattern that I find appropriate for examining music is that of borders. [Slide 11: Borders—Volk]  Without boundaries, the mind would be awash with sensory input that would have no distinguishing features. [Slide 12: Borders—Volk]  It should be noted that infants begin in the first few months of life to find borders in words, that is, to define one phoneme from another on the way to discerning words.[xiii]  Ultimately, the words form sentences and complete thoughts.  While music does not contain an absolute syntax, it is constructed in recognizable phrases that denote borders, [Slide 13: Borders—Volk] which are then marked according to the system in which the music is written.  Consider the following example.

[Slide 14: Theme and Variations, Haydn/Brahms and Musical Example 6]

            The first border, a tonal construction that we spoke about previously, is set by the first three measures designating an aural border around Bb major (bracket 1).  Although we might accept a modern use of distantly related keys to be suddenly thrust into the musical fabric, even in Brahms’ time that would not have been a normal progression.  Thus, there is a mental border around the tones that comprise Bb major and we would not in this period of music accept easily a suddenly intruding F# major chord in the Bb major complex of tones.

            The second border, emphasizing the temporal to reinforce the tonal, is set at the end of measure 3 (bracket 2).  The phrase ending on a weak beat is of sufficient duration to suggest only a partial end-point, so the music must continue.  The sub-phrase being only three measures long is not unusual with Brahms and still retains a kind of classical approach of limited range while outlining a Bb tonal center.  Moreover, the durations of full beats in measures 2 and 3 cause the emphasis to be more solidly in Bb major.  A fluctuation between tonic and dominant occurs in measures 4 and 5 that, with the use of shorter durations, leads back to the beginning of the theme (bracket 3).  Those two measures are also a segment that has its sub-borders in the overall plot.  The next five measures essentially duplicate the same rhythmic scheme (number 4), but the emphasis is fully returned to the Tonic, a point of rest, in measure 10.  The differences between measures 4 and 5 as a unit compared to measures 9 and 10 as a unit (compare brackets 3 and 5), suggest again that longer durations along with tonal aspects lead toward a conclusion of the full ten-measure theme.  We find borders in all aspects of music in this fashion; else phenomena become an indecipherable stream of sound.

            Another border exists in the Western symphony orchestra concert.  All will be familiar with the beginning events: orchestra members enter haphazardly, there is a noisy house, eventually lights dim somewhat and the concertmaster initiates tuning, the lights dim further and the conductor enters, frequently shakes hands with the concertmaster, then bows to the audience acknowledging the applause at his entry, mounts the podium, and finally raises the baton to begin the performance.  The pieces are set.  If a standard symphony is being performed, we know to expect four movements, with highly controlled arrangements of pitches, tempos, loudness, phrasing, and orchestration.  The program guides us through works that deviate from the standard pattern.  We get unnerved if the work is unfamiliar and we have no explanations.  We need those boundaries within which the music is to take place.  Moreover, we put boundaries on dress and other behaviors.  Although concerts are now becoming less formal, we would probably get very annoyed were someone to attend wearing shorts and tee shirts, thus violating the boundary between street and sanctified hall.  I’ve drawn enough of a picture to illustrate our boundaries.

            An example, by comparison, where borders are less easily defined is with the North Indian sitar, tabla and tambura group.  First, there is no discernable border as in the Western symphony concert.  In the Indian concert the musicians are seemingly tuning their instruments, but there is frequently not a break where they stop, wait for the audience to quiet and then begin their first piece.  In addition, at a certain point in the concert, the audience begins to physically express the underlying metrical cycles.  Likewise, since the art is improvisational, the performance may go on for an exceptionally long time.  There is finally closure but to an outsider, the cues are less obvious.  There are cues, however, but even these are culturally determined.[xiv]

Binaries

            Our next metapattern is made up of binaries.  The world is made of twos: yin and yang, [Slide 15: Volk Binary illustrating sun and moon] balance between one extreme and the other, as in our scales of justice where compassion and punishment are two sides of the same coin, [Slide 16, 17: Scales of Justice]

the human body is a bi-partite structure, [Slide 18, 19, 20: Male and Female Greek Sculptures] our brain compares phenomena by opposites like hot and cold. [Slide 21: Weather samples]  Volk allies spheres with the binary idea [Slide 22: Weather Examples]:

A sphere . . . cuts into two parts: inside and outside, thing and the rest of the universe.  The two—entity & environment—relate, determine, create, and influence each other in a radially linked dance by which any thing is joined to its surrounding sea: ship & ocean, particle & crystal, galaxy & cosmos, genome & cell, organism and ecosystem, computer & network, person & society.  The figure & ground binary forms a basis for logic and language, in classifying entities and giving them context, and as a basis for science, in investigating the activities of things in their environments.[xv]

Music reflects this propensity for balancing two halves by numerous examples in the music literature.  One of J.S. Bach’s most famous works is The Goldberg Variations.  The theme and each of the variations are in binary form.  The two halves act like a fulcrum, or one might say, the two halves sit on either side of a teeter-totter perfectly balanced horizontally.  The measures number evenly and the music is tonally consistent.

[Slide 23 with Musical Example 7: Bach Goldberg, Var. No. 4]

Layers

Layers comprise another metapattern. [Slide 24: Coliseum]

Music structure emanates from the mind, yet follows a pattern that we are predisposed to invent anew in overt expressions of our innermost feelings.  Volk says that “[w]e are born into a world of layers.”

We dwell within a giant layered sphere.  Surrounding the inner core of metals, the viscous mantle slowly heaves, in turn encased by the thin and brittle crust, and then the swirling onionskins of hydrosphere, troposphere, stratosphere, and ionosphere—out of all of which has evolved the biosphere.[xvi]

He later states “[t]he rise of complexity through layering . . . is seen everywhere,” and still later, “[t]he emergence of wholes from parts exudes an aroma of mystery, of elusive but profound truths.”[xvii] [Slide 25: Palace]

              In the Western musical world, fugues and canons abound.  From Palestrina through Bach and contemporary composers, we find layers in music that produce a larger whole than the sum of the individual parts.  Polyphony lends itself to layers.  The later repetition of tonal-temporal configurations woven into a larger multi-part fabric produces a sound usually more complex than the usual harmonically supported melodies found across many different cultures.  I offer two Western examples, one Josquin and one of Bock, Jerry, that is.  The Josquin is his well-known Ave Maria.  [Slide 26 with Musical Example 8: Ave Maria]

As each entrance of the voices is made, one can understand Volk’s idea that the whole from the parts does indeed “exude an aroma of mystery,” a mystery in how all this fits together so well, and a mystery as to the mind of the composer to be able to fashion such a work. 

              Another example is from the more recent composition of Jerry Bock, Fiddler on the Roof.  All composers rely on this simple structure in the parts that becomes more complex in the whole.  Here the individual parts are introduced in their cultural hierarchy, then sung collectively as a social phenomenon called the family.  [Slide 27 with Musical Example 9: Excerpt from Tradition]

Spheres and Tubes

            To continue this presentation of metapatterns as applied to music structure, I turn to a combination of spheres and tubes.  Having discussed spheres, Volk regards the tube as “a structural connection [that] allows for a transmission of forces,” and provides “a passage for flows between one place and another.”[xviii] 

[Slide 28: Spheres and Tubes—Volk]

The idea of two spheres connected by a tube brought to mind that essentially the Western sonata allegro form satisfies that criteria.  Although the form is a large ABA, the two A parts are anchors to a “transmission of forces” represented by the development section.  After all, the development section is not made up of new themes as to truly constitute a new section, and is the liveliest of the sections as well because of its transitional nature through several keys.  Aaron Copland describes the form in a manner that comports with Volk’s view of tubes.

In no other form is there a special division reserved for the extension and development of musical material already introduced in a previous section.  It is that feature of the sonata-allegro form that has so fascinated all composers—that opportunity for working freely with materials already announced.  . . . the sonata form . . . is essentially a psychological and dramatic form.  You cannot very well mix the two or more elements of the exposition without creating a sense of struggle or drama.  It is the development section that challenges the imagination of every composer.”[xix]

[Slide 29: Sonata Allegro Form]

The connecting tube represents the flow of force and energy that leads inexorably to the second circle representing the recapitulation of the main theme or themes.  There may be many musical examples of the form; I chose Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 in C major as an illustration; here is the beginning of the B section that ends just as it enters the recapitulation.  [Slide 30 with Musical Example 10: Sonata Allegro Form]

Time Cycles

            To conclude this study, I now turn to music in its temporal form, based in our nature from birth.

At birth, our lungs flood with air and begin their rhythmic duties.  The heart, already fully active for many months, beats with new vigor.  The suckling mouth, too, joins in the symphony of physiological cycles.  With all—with the brain’s gamma, beta, and alpha rhythms, with the mysterious growth cycles of stasis and spurt during the early years—we pulse: ethereally, grossly, statistically, chaotically, regularly.[xx]

We are sensitive to location; place is subject to varying weather, seasonal conditions, and topography, which tell us in large ways where we are.  Of course, that is becoming less so as the nation at first glance looks more and more like itself anywhere one goes.  Starbucks and strip malls with fast food establishments look alike along the interstate across the country, occasionally altering our orientation.

            Time is another matter.  While space is a more overt interpretation through what we see, taste and smell, time affects us at a level that is submerged in our normally conscious experience.  Less discernible in terms of patterns beyond the analog or digital clock [Slide 31: Analog and Digital clock faces] and our daily appointments, time affects us in ways that easily escape our awareness.  Volk noticed this at one stage in his search for metapatterns.

By only sketching things in space, I had been neglecting time.  I saw . . . that I could and would have to redirect my search for general forms to encompass the realm of change, which creates with memory the shapes of movement, the metapatterns of time.

He concludes:

Time’s metapatterns seem more complex than those of space because they can never be observed in a single ocular frame.  They must be made by connecting several spaces.[xxi]

Remember that Galileo’s experiment that found that three elements to measure time through space—distance, velocity, acceleration—could not be found in a single ocular space as Volk discovered. [Slide 32: Heavenly bodies]  He states:

“[T]o encompass the realm of change, which creates with memory the shapes of movement, the metapatterns of time.”

How better to describe the experience of music at its most basic level.  For without memory, music is but a discrete assortment of sounds without relationship to one another, and therefore lacking in significant meaning.  A musical chunk can certainly be considered comparable to an ocular space.  

            To pursue more basic descriptions of our susceptibility to time’s dimensions, imagine the fright and confusion with which the earliest humans viewed the sun rising and setting, not to mention a solar eclipse.  As religions developed, numerous gods developed on the basis of heavenly observations.  In Egypt, the people worshipped Ra, the sun god.  Japan has a similarly strong relationship with the sun.  The entire Greek panoply of gods is inseparable from natural phenomena.  The moon was deified in early manuscripts from Babylonia, China and India.  Adherents of astrology still maintain that the positions of the stars can foretell our future, and as they move, our future becomes manifest.

            I prefer to stay in the present and consider how the sun and moon as part of the larger universe has had more than psychological impact on human mentality.  In our daily lives we are direct extensions of the universe, subject to biological rhythms that determine much of our existence.  [Slide 33: Earth’s seasons] To enumerate, circadian cycles on a 24 to 25 hour basis, diurnal rhythms synchronized with the day/night cycle, ultradian rhythms that determine our feeding and energy cycles, and infradian rhythms connected to female menstrual cycles are a few examples.  Circadian rhythms affect sleep/wakefulness cycles, body temperature, patterns of hormonal secretions, blood pressure, digestive secretions, levels of alertness, and reaction times.[xxii]  These effects are sense oriented and find their pathways through various parts of the brain.  The illustration as shown on the slide is explained in this fashion [Slide 34: The brain showing bio clock]:

Light causes the brain’s internal clock to reset its cycle.  Sunlight reaching photo receptors in the retina travels to the brain by the optic nerve.  It sets off reactions in a region of the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which serves as the body’s clock.  Circadian changes in the SCN affect the nervous system and cause daily fluctuations in many body traits.  Nerve fibers also carry signals from the SCN to the pineal gland, which affects hormones and other functions. [Illustration by Lydia Kibiuk, Copyright 1995 Lydia Kibiuk][xxiii]

            It is obvious that as evolutionary products of the universe, we have a sense of time built into our system.  Just as revolutions of bodies transiting through space [Slide 35: Planets and sun] constituting the cosmos not only capture our imagination, we are of the stars in our artistic expressions.  So is it any wonder that in expressing ourselves in music, that time would be of an essence beyond simply keeping a pulse?  Time finds its way into larger dimensions in Mahlerian-length symphonies, Wagnerian opera cycles, and in  wayang kulit from Bali. 

            The universal calendar based on planetary rotations has been used to determine celebrations and rituals.  Solstices recognized by early civilizations are yet encountered in contemporary cultures; for example, the date of Easter in the Western church falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox, subject to certain caveats on when the ecclesiastical full moon is determined.  Plantings since agriculture began are done in accordance with natural calendars.

            Taking these longer time spans into account, repertoire is based on cyclic occurrence of certain holidays.  For one, Western Christmas music in July is out of place.  In other cultures, there is a much closer connection to seasons and daily cycles of bodily states as in classical Indian music.  Coomaraswamy states clearly that

the purpose of the song [is not] to repeat the confusion of life, to express and arouse particular passions of body and soul in man and nature.  Each raga is associated with an hour of the day or night when it may be appropriately sung, and some are associated with particular seasons or have definite magic effects.[xxiv]

Although metaphysical kinds of connections accompany music-making the world round, the human mind needs to move to smaller units, however related to the larger, to produce a sound that is perceivable and practical.  Thus, we move from macro- to micro-organizations.  

            Along this line, Western composers have played with the time element in various ways.  Examples vary from the isorhythmic motets of Machaut and Dunstable, Renaissance proportions in the motets of the Flemish composers, to the temporal permutations of a time row by Webern, and the metrical modulations of Elliott Carter.  In these instances, the organizing feature of duration extended musical expression. 

            Examining further the micro view of time, Sub-Saharan African music is supported by time cycles as well.  To grasp the essence of the rhythmic organization, Mantle Hood and colleagues discussed the fastest definable pulse as a Density Referent in an attempt to find an application to all music for purposes of comparison.[xxv]  A saturation point is reached by some cultures, where the fastest beat possible that can still be counted as a single unit is extremely fast.  Hood states that “. . . Ghanaian musicians . . . have achieved a nearly absolute perception of saturation density.  A master drummer perceives immediately even a fractional displacement of a stroke by any drum, bell, or rattle.”[xxvi]   No single instrument plays the density referent, but it is the cycles of each that interlock to produce this phenomenon.  [Slide 36 with Musical Example 11: Density Referent]

            In that we find evidence of this unconscious acquisition of time cycles that fill our daily lives everywhere we turn, I will close with a musical example of Indonesia that shows the time cycles of gamelan music.  I’ve heard Mantle Hood state more than once that as Westerners have developed absolute pitch, the Indonesian musicians have attained absolute time.  This musical example is from Robert E. Brown’s recording of Javanese gamelan in the early 1970s. [Slide 37: Gamelan group with Musical Example 12]

            The mental faculties of humankind are limited.  We experience time in various ways from the bottom up with recognition of the heart beat to daily revolutions of our planet, to massive cycles of the yearly turning of the earth, to the stages of life that begin with consciousness in the early years, to realization of a termination of the breath in the final years.  I believe that music is an effort to capture the essence of this movement.  It expresses our fundamental nature as a reflection and embodiment of the universe and its laws.

Conclusion

            In summary, I have found Tyler Volk’s book revelatory in its approach to understanding both physical and mental phenomena.  His explication of underlying structures in all things suggested that there must be a connection between how things are structured and how unconscious apprehension of these patterns must be reflected in the overt expressions of human mentality.  In all our expressions I believe that investigations will show how metapatterns permeate and invigorate our existence.  Such a major expression as music cannot, therefore, be without a connection to the larger sphere of law that governs the universe.  Were we to plumb this subject more deeply, I feel confident that what will be revealed is a new sense of who and what we are in the universe.

            To illustrate, assisting the student to develop one’s musicianship is preeminent in music instruction.  As stated at the outset, science and philosophy are critical subjects that aid in increasing one’s musical and artistic sensitivities because they can answer the what and why of music as a fundamental process of being human.  Musicianship is more than aural acuity and ability to articulate musical phrases.  A deeper understanding of why music is structured the way it is must become a part of the instruction, to realize that philosophy permeates our existence, whether assumed or conscious.  However, the more conscious our understanding of the why and what of music, the better able we are to apprehend the deeper mysteries and pathways of human existence as expressed through musical means.

            Presently, our young people listen to music at various levels of attention and understanding, probably most at a rather superficial level.  For example, the song means what the words tell us.  The strong rhythmic pulse is more physical response than mental.  On closer examination we can easily conclude that there is more than immediately meets the ear.  Through study, if the student can listen to music more deeply, with an understanding that it represents not a departure from daily living, but an intimate connection to all that we experience each conscious minute of existence, that it constitutes one of the highest forms of physical and emotional life, that it is the very essence of being human in a widely diverse existence of life, there is a chance that music will become a normal and natural part of one’s activities beyond the superficial accompaniment to other events.

            My final point, then, is that what this has to do with philosophy of music and music education is profound.  We tend to deal in the music classroom with much peripheral information and knowledge—who composers are, when they lived, how many symphonies they composed—yet we neglect the connections between what we are as human beings and the artistic expressions that we create.  Given that tonal-temporal configurations are expressions of our being in the world, that we are extensions of the laws of the universe, that we are subject to the varying ebb and flow of the sun and moon so intimately, we could fashion an experience for our young people that crosses all lines of inquiry and makes the enjoyment of being alive one of deep and abiding faith in life.  Is that not philosophy, science, and art all rolled into one dynamic process?