top of page
Search

Music's Transcendent Catharsis

A phenomenon that basically gives way to the most visceral of comprehensible feelings is how eclectic and innate music is in us. The world without it would be in a decadent state of decline, devoid of the very heart that prevents us from complacency and utter inertia. We dwell on music as if it were a reciprocating and sentient partner in its own right. We receive this touching feeling of love, belonging, enlightenment, relatability, functionality, and some form of transcendence that we bellow out while undulating incalculably. We listen to it in all realms of life. I would be remiss if I were to mention every nuance of the realms in our life we applicably listen to music. I can also make the claim when someone is absolutely abysmal performing musically that most will sit mortified with disgust. Music's truly natural angelic and soothing element resides in the mellowest and dualistically in the thrashiest genres as well. Any(generically speaking) human being can find some sort of catharsis in musical sleuthing. You have four types of people who listen to music. I am about to veer off the path for some humor real quick. Your first person is "the lyricist" that knows every word by heart and is able to ridicule anyone who lacks knowledge of the lyrics. Your second is the "I can feel" the music pulsating through my veins and if you don't feel it then you may possibly not be musically inclined. Your third candidate is a "mere hybrid" who knows the lyrics to all your mainstream songs and also has glimpses of the "feeling" coursing through their veins at spontaneous times(they are void of searching for this feeling, it just happens). The last but not least individual is your "music denier". This person has the vapidest, dubious, and most incoherent sense of what we call "music". They feel as if music is just an occult phenomenon that zealots of the most pejorative kind can wallow in. These sorts of people are truly of a rare breed but they do exist. I'm sure we could become more pedantic and find the in-between people in these groups, but I refuse to go down that rabbit hole. I digress, furthermore, I am writing this with more specificity toward music's transcendent catharsis, meaning music has this way of surpassing reality as we know it to calm us, to excite us, and with discreteness utilizing catharsis to abet us in overcoming our conundrums we are in.



We need to go down two separate yet converging routes. The first one will have mostly to do with the visceral elements of music which is multi-faceted. The second route I will venture on will be the science as to why we react in such a stimulated way towards music. These both are colloquial in essence which is why I believe they converge, yet the word "transcendent" logically doesn't explain succinctly that. I want to start out with the second route, science, which will give some clarity to the question of why we even have stimulation to this phenomenon. I ended up watching two segments of ted talks, one video of poetic pleasure, and an added bonus of a Jordan Peterson clip from Joe Rogan expounding on music. I also encompass a Ph.D. in listening to irrational amounts of music so I'll use that as part of my accumine haha. Out of all of that, I found a very similar commonality between all of these illustrations. Rhythm and repetition were the two terms that caught my attention when analyzing this tsunami(waves) of information, and yes that was meant for humor's sake..... Dr. Robert Zatorre(ted talk How Music Changes the Brain) utilized a violin with a motion sensor tip on the bow, and what he found was that there was a specific pattern that the violinist had to make in order to achieve certain sounds. This seems utterly trivial, but to parallel how immaculate this is we have an auditory cortex that conjoins to the motor systems(limbic) of our brain which also conjoins with the striatum which conceives of our reward/pleasure complex. This sort of teamwork between these systems causes our brain to assign a level of importance to music, which innately codifies, and competes with our desire for monetary value, food, sex, and drugs. The predictability of this reaction such as finding a "tune" that viscerally moves you will activate this reaction and therefore predictability will present itself. To append this example, Alan Harvey(neuroscientist "Your Brain on Music" ted talk) expounds on this by illustrating a very adroit and benign shark pacing through the water with mildly tame music. There are three segments he shows starting with mild then progressively projecting a more feral musical choice to the point that the same video depicts this very ominous feeling that agitates your senses into believing that this shark desires to attack you at any moment. Dr. Alan then narrows his point by exemplifying a human interaction with a device called an EEG(electroencephalography) while a live orchestra plays a rendition. This device rests on the "noggin" and tracks alpha waves(synchronized brain waves) during the song and it's quite intriguing to watch. As the orchestra plays a soothing song, the waves on this diagram seemed to flow as effortlessly and orderly as one would expect. The orchestra then takes a stark turn and then plays a nails on the chalkboard cacophony and the man's brain waves scattered as if jaws spawned from the depths of hell(I'm trying okay...). This indicates the disorder in sound that lacks the harmonious peace we receive from some masterfully crafted work of art. The release of dopamine between these three systems(mentioned above) also increases our physical output and our ability to comprehend along with overall memory(this is a generalization of science). I feel as if I'm rambling but this is the setup for the more visceral and philosophical understanding behind music. Every component of our being is associated with rhythm and repetition, and this is even present in our anatomy such as a "heartbeat" and "pulse". It seems congenital from the moment of conception that expectations, repetition, and rhythm are present in us, and when they all synchronize together, life is highly euphoric.



Then there is a locus in time when we discover a pattern, and it perhaps is our human nature just rewarding our discovery for ecstasy. We then have this undergirding desire to promote and share it with our companions. It’s like solving a sophisticated puzzle. When we, of our own volition, take on the task of listening to a song and find meaning through the words (pattern of thought and what it took to think of that sort of lyric), it’s like an envious trait that we find pleasurable because we did not originate it. We also seem to derive a myriad of purpose and meaning from the sound through which rhythm and repetition are replete. There is a known/unknown expectation, and humans are all about questioning/figuring out the answer, and I feel the flow of music helps this resonate with us allowing us to obtain a power unbeknownst to us before we truly experience it. I believe this is what Jordan Peterson refers to as the perfect mix between order and chaos. He explains in an interview with Joe Rogan that he was at a Nashville bar just nosing around to experience the electrifying culture of music that the "Music City" portrays itself to be. He goes on to talk about how this tribute band was absolutely striking at their craft. What captivated Mr. Peterson to the point of tears was the guitarist of this band who played "way out on a limb", and brought the crowd to this state of pandemonium. The guitarist was "dancing" on the edge of order and chaos which is the desired state of any human being to experience this form of rapturous euphoria. The chaos is the creativity, of the unknown for 2 reasons, creating it ontologically (the music itself for the creator's pleasure) and then presenting it to an unknown audience whose opinion could waiver at any botched note or lyric that presents itself. We admire people who are willing to do that because we ourselves may lack the fortitude to partake in such an action. Then we have order, which is the pattern aspect to which we desire to a degree. Sound waves in synchronization have this appeal, which more than likely will replicate itself(due to human autonomy) during a song with the same chords for expression, then putting the puzzle together for the grand finale nearing the end. We can also encounter monotony when the same pattern is presented at an ungodly rate of times. I believe we find this too easy, the first few times it's unknown so we appreciate it but once it gets to a certain point, we belch it out with disgust. I can listen to the same song over and over again due to my appreciation for a litany of music (so this doesn’t refute my claims above by any means of repetitiveness) because of the concept of order and chaos. If the song you really enjoy has the perfect balance of that to you subjectively then in theory you could listen to that until the cows come home and only eventually acquire some disdain for it. This is why I conclude it's transcendent because the euphoria we experience from it can’t be entirely pinpointed and I will be glad to keep it that way.


Lastly, (and I promise this will be the last point) we find community through this transcendent catharsis. Unlike any bonding phenomenon, I have never experienced such kinship through human interaction of this kind in my life. You can become instantaneous friends with someone who steeps their time and energy into the same artists you do. This reveals a commonality that you share, yet in any other realm of life that may be vacuous amongst any other subject matter you could verbally exchange with that person. We are all ravenously probing for some sort of community that can reciprocate meaning, love, and purpose. Music embodies all three of these words into one. Music is not God so don't obfuscate this triune quality with music and bridge this nonexistent aspect with it, this would be called blasphemy. Music is also capricious, meaning it can serve as a temporal antidote to nihilism and depression. The religious landscape has been present throughout this whole article, and I hope through my articulation of it that you can see Christ's intelligent design through this sophisticated subject. Every nuance and modicum of detail that I transversed has the element of God and his sovereignty to allow us to have such a numinous experience. We not only experience this human community, but Jesus is ever so exposed through this sensation we call music. I believe like C.S. Lewis once said, "If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world." Music most notably for me unravels this notion of a sense of community, catharsis, kinship, the numinous, and the incentive to leave an indelible impression of Jesus.



If you enjoyed this article, be sure to subscribe to receive an email notification for future articles!







Sources:




Comments

Post: Blog2_Post
bottom of page