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Warning:
The
Side Throughout America, public school music programs have been
downsized or completely eliminated. Recently, the crisis has finally
become so severe that parents, and even politicians, are finally calling
for reparations. Psychologists, sociologists, mayors, senators and
school chancellors are all declaring that music is an important part of
education. Why is it important? Most often, the answer will be that
music is important because of its side effects: it promotes spatial
awareness, abstract and mathematical thinking, physical coordination and
self-esteem. Furthermore, it is a way to learn about diverse cultures
and historical periods, and it teaches children to cooperate with each
other through group rehearsals and performance. It also keeps children
busy after school hours. It
turns out that aspirin, long thought to be good only for temporary
relief from headaches and for fever reduction, also thins the blood,
thereby helping to prevent heart attacks. Researchers have made many
people happy with the news that red wine, in moderate doses, is good for
the circulatory system, They have also informed the public that one
glass of red wine makes it easier for students to study for exams, while
two glasses make it harder. No studies have revealed what three glasses
will do. Nicotine, it turns out, can help you lose weight, and it is not
- as previously supposed due to the fact that one's mouth is busy smoking rather
than eating. Garlic fights off two out of three diseases, placing it
just ahead of broccoli as an alternative prevention food, and it now
seems clear that real butter is better than margarine as an impediment
to cancer. The best news of all is that laughter is good for longevity,
and so researchers are encouraging people to look on the lighter side,
if only for health reasons. America
is obsessed with side effects. A side effect of this obsession is that
we have improved peripheral vision, but we cannot see what is right in
front of us. I am a lover of red wine and garlic, but I confess that it
is purely an issue of sensual pleasure. (Some red wines, by the way,
taste a lot better than others, though they will have equal medicinal
effect.) If it were shown that red wine had no healthful effects, would
restaurants close their wine cellars? If music had no effect on
children's math scores and the like, would we then argue that it should
be dropped from the curriculum? Music's
direct effects are far more important than its side effects. Music is as
fundamental to thought as is mathematics; it does not merely promote
abstract thinking, it is one of the highest forms of abstract thought;
music is not merely good for self-esteem, it sensually, intellectually
and emotionally organizes the mind. This is an ancient concept. Plato
wrote in The Republic: "...rhythm and harmony find their way into
the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten..."
Pythagoras and his disciples understood music to be the
"harmonization of opposites, the unification of disparate
things." These ancient definitions of music, which we should
broaden to include the arts generally, find resonance in current
neuroscience research that defines creative activity in the brain as the
merging of reason and intuition. Neuro-scientist Antonio K. Damasio has
compared the workings of the mind/brain to a musical score. Beethoven,
who knew little or no science, sensed the value of the comparison in
1824. He wrote: "I wish you all success in your efforts on behalf
of the arts; it is these, together with science, that give us inclines
of a higher existence and the hope of attaining it." When
I complete this paragraph, I will pour myself a glass of wine and listen
to a recording of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. I know, without
checking the latest research, that it will do my heart good. The Side Effects of Music Education is an essay from the book Of Mozart, Parrots, and Cherry Blossoms in the Wind: A Composer Explores Mysteries of the Musical Mind by Bruce Adolphe, to be published by Limelight Editions, New York, in the fall, 1999.
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© 2005 TMEA |