What I'm Reading - Week Four: Emotional Processes in Music Therapy

I'm not going to lie to you - this was not an easy week to get to reading, but I did a bit of it and here's what I have to report...

This week's chapter is the last of the first section of the book, and it covers how we have developed ideas of culture, language, and music in ways that are both unfamiliar and givens, at least in my knowledge base. Chapter three dives a bit into sociology, anthropology, and emotional psychology to discuss how we use music. There is a bit about whether animals use sounds as communication/language and some debate about whether those sounds are also musical in nature.

I did not get through the chapter yesterday. There will be a much better review and report next Sunday (I hope). I find Pellitteri's writing style very readable and the concept makes sense to me. I haven't had to write down many vocabulary words to check (which tends to happen when I read music therapy texts), and I know what we are discussing most of the time.

I like that in a book.

Let me go get my notebook to tell about what I've learned...

• The first flute that was found in archeological exploration is believed to be between 36,000 and 82,000 years old and came to us from the Paleolithic Era of the Neanderthals. The flute is a more advanced instrument than drums, so it is surmised that drums and rattles are over 100,000 years old. Of course, it is theorized that vocal music and sound production developed as the first form of what we call music.
• "development and transformation of cultures as distinct from biological and genetic transmissions of traits" - This quotation came from Molino (2000) and attempted to describe that culture is not genetic but is derived by interactions - for me, this acts as a starting point for the "nature vs. nurture" argument. I like the idea that culture arises from interactions with others rather than our genetic code.
• Music is part of ritualized behaviors in all known cultures - well, I know that, but it is always interesting to read it again.
• Language and music are "the two major sound systems of the human species." (pg. 36)
• Emotional states dictate survival - we learn how to respond to what happens in our environment - emotions help us interpret what is happening and allows us to respond in ways that support our continued survival.
• p. 38 - "...emotions a central to the formation of social bonds..." 
• Lots of talk about the creation of music as outreach or as precursor to language - there is lots of overlap and uncertainty about how we developed these two parts of our ways of interacting with each other and with the world. It's a chicken and an egg situation - which came first?? Are they the same thing? Do they have separate origins or are they alterations of each other?

As always, I have lots of thoughts about all of this discussion but they are rattling around in my head and are eluding my fingers on the keyboard. Of course, it is also 5:40 am, so I have a bit of an excuse. 

More on Emotional Processes in Music Therapy by John Pellitteri next Sunday. After that, I will be taking a break for a bit (I think) because I am not sure if I will have lots of computer access for the first bit of July... oh, that reminds me that I need to get sing about october ready to release before that first day of July...

Got to get busy. Thanks for reading.