By Dan Falk, a science journalist based in Toronto. His books include “The Science of Shakespeare” and “In Search of Time.” Orignally puhlished at Undark.
It’s not clear who first said that “writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” but they had a point: Music exerts a certain power over us, but it’s not the sort of power one can readily quantify or analyze. Music moves us, often very deeply — but how? If anyone is qualified to tackle this age-old question, it’s Daniel J. Levitin, an award-winning neuroscientist, musician, and author who has spent a lifetime immersed in the world of music, both as a scientist and as a musician and producer. (Levitin’s bestselling 2006 book, “This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession,” is a sweeping exploration into the connections between music and the brain.)
Levitin, a professor emeritus at McGill University and a visiting professor at UCLA, is back with a new book called “I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine” (the first part of the title is a quotation from the Leonard Cohen song “Hallelujah”). His focus is the myriad ways in which music can help to heal our bodies and our minds.
Music, Levitin asserts, helps us cope with trauma. Playing or listening to music, he explains, can tweak the body’s levels of serotonin and dopamine. Music also stimulates the brain’s ability to make new neurons, as well as new connections between them, “enhancing brain recovery, and normalizing the stress response.”
Music can also treat movement disorders. Levitin notes that “the motor and movement pathways in our brain are activated by music, they synchronize to it, and our limbic system” — the part of the brain responsible for emotions — “signals pleasure when they do.”
He lists five particular movement disorders for which patients have been shown to respond to music therapy: stuttering, Tourette syndrome, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease. And even with other conditions, such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), where Levitin says more research is needed, music has still been found to relieve anxiety and depression, and to improve quality of life.
That music can be used to treat depression will probably not come as a surprise: Even those who have never sought out medical treatment for depression will have witnessed the power of music to lift one’s mood. Levitin notes how music helped record producer Quincy Jones deal with depression: “Music made me full, strong, popular, self-reliant and cool,” he quotes from Jones’ autobiography. In a similar vein, Bruce Springsteen has described music as a form of medicine, one that has brought him a kind of peace “that’s very, very, very difficult to come by,” he told the PBS NewsHour.
Music can have a positive effect for other ailments, too. Alzheimer’s disease is, without doubt, one of the cruellest of afflictions. Levitin’s description of guitarist Glen Campbell’s battle with the disease is heartbreaking. After receiving his diagnosis, Campbell continued to tour. “He did not know what city he was in,” Levitin writes, “and often couldn’t remember that he had just played a song, and so would play it twice or even three times in a row.” Yet in spite of these challenges, Campbell’s performances were still rock solid.
While there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, Levitin shows that music can, at least temporarily, loosen the disease’s grip. He describes the case of a man named George who was diagnosed with the disease at age 72. Six years later he could no longer walk or communicate, other than the ability to deliver a “yes” or a “no.” But the care home where he resided often had music playing, and, as George’s neurologist told Levitin, it made a difference. George “could sing when the music played as if he were 30 years old again.”
Even if music does not slow or stop the progress of Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, it can improve a patient’s quality of life by relieving anxiety and agitation. Levitin cites the work of Frank Russo and Adiel Mallik at Toronto Metropolitan University. The pair has been modeling the brain’s “relaxation network” and developing therapies to help manage certain symptoms of dementia. Levitin says their research is “pointing an arrow toward musical medicine for relaxation” and highlights the value of non-pharmacological treatments.
One limitation with the kinds of treatments that Russo and Mallik have been investigating is that it’s hard to scale them up, since there are far fewer therapists than people in need of therapy. Here, Levitin suggests that artificial intelligence can help. AI can assist “in selecting music that meets both an individual’s tastes and desired therapeutic and wellness goals. Several start-up companies are doing just that.” This line of research, he says, “can usher in a new age of personalized music medicine.”
Levitin’s personal relationships with some of the artists gives the book a warmth it might otherwise lack. He is a long-time friend of singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, who was hospitalized after suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015. Once Mitchell was back at home, Levitin arranged for Mitchell’s nurses to play a CD that she had put together years earlier as part of Starbucks’ “Artist’s Choice” series — a customized set of songs, performed by some of Mitchell’s favorite artists.
Levitin told the nurses to start off playing the disc once a day, and to ask Mitchell when to play it and how often to do so. After playing the CD for Mitchell the first time, the verdict was in: “The nurses called me later that afternoon and said it was the first time they’d seen her smile since coming home.” Mitchell’s condition gradually improved. Levitin believes music was likely just one factor in her recovery, but suggests that it was, at the very least, a catalyst.
While Levitin makes a strong case that music can heal, he also points to some unavoidable truths about the conditions that many musicians suffer from, seemingly out of proportion to the population at large. Professional musicians, Levitin writes, are more likely to be addicted to drugs and alcohol, and are more likely to die violent deaths (or to die from an overdose, or from liver disease) than non-musicians. Levitin cites a British study that found 71 percent of musicians had panic attacks or high levels of anxiety, while 69 percent suffered from depression (a rate three times higher than among the general public).
The underlying reasons behind these disparities are not fully understood, and many intersecting factors may be at work. Levitin suggests that one factor may be the high stakes associated with success or failure in the music business. “Their failures tend to be very public,” he writes. “More so than in many occupations, a performer’s sense of self and self-worth becomes tied to their identity and status as a musician.”
Nonetheless, the reader is left with the conviction that the pros of listening to or playing music far outweigh the cons. Levitin points to research that says music can relieve pain and strengthen our immune system; that it can lift our energy levels when we exercise; that it can make us more empathetic. Learning a musical instrument can improve attentional focus, enhance verbal ability, and improve brain health.
The book covers more than just music’s power to heal. Levitin explores a diverse array of adjacent topics — the complex connections between music and memory, for example, or how people with Williams syndrome (a genetic disorder marked by delayed development and mild intellectual disability, among other distinct characteristics) or autism spectrum disorder respond to, or make, music.
And while the book is anchored by science, Levitin recognizes science’s limitations. Toward the end, he muses philosophical as he returns to the enigmatic question of how music affects us so profoundly. In the end, music is an ambiguous art form, and this ambiguity is part of its magic.
Understanding how music moves us involves science, but also asks us to embrace something beyond science. This engrossing, compassionate, and thoroughly researched book reveals just how much we’ve learned about the interplay between the world of sound and the world inside our heads, even as it leaves the magic behind the music intact.
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Another book about music and the brain: Music, The Brain, & Ecstasy by Robert Jourdain. 1997
A main difference:
While the discussions around the brain and music are like Levitin’s book, the discussions around music tended to be centered around classical music.
Levitin’s book came along later and included discussion of more genres.
Many of you won’t be familiar with this, but it’s one of the most powerful “songs” about music. Music is the Healing Force of the Universe. The vocals my Mary Maria Parks are amazing, and the sax is OK too :-)
Well, musicians of a passion (I’m one), look for internal logic and coherence, listeners may comprehend or not. Along the lines of your Albert Ayler offering is Ornette with Asha Puthli:
What Reason Could I Give
The sixties (when I came up) was a revolutionary era in many realms. Here is Krzysztof Penderecki in 2011 conducting his 1962 composition Polymorphia.
In the 70’s he retreated from what I often describe as music of the 23rd century back to the 21st century.
I’ve always looked for and appreciated musicians who find their own logic, whatever label is attached.
Even this tells me something:
Sam Bush & Sierra Hull – “Turkey in the Straw”
It’s about chops.
‘Well, musicians of a passion (I’m one), look for internal logic and coherence, listeners may comprehend or not.’
It’s the same with abstract painting. Art of this kind (for arts sake?) seems to be taking a breather and IDpol and social utility has filled the gap. It will possibly take a generation to recover, if we’re still around.
> It’s about chops.
Partly. There are those with high-end chops who use them to communicate what’s in their heart and/or soul, which can be quite unpleasant. And there are those without much chops at all but use it to make lovely music. If you’ve got the chops then there’s less excuse so I guess the latter is the more impressive accomplishment.
Science Fiction is a really interesting and good album.
I’ve rediscovered Thelonious Monk and the music makes me immensely happy. I listen to it nearly every night while I’m doing dishes, after I’ve sampled what’s on WCPE, The Classical Station.
The “algorhythm” won’t let me repeat something I’ve mentioned in the past. So ………. look up Music is the healing force of the Universe, a song.
I have a lot of opinions here. I’ll mention just three in the form of teasers.
1) I believe music and language are expressions of the same hardware features of the human brain.
2) Recorded music as consumer product is different in important ways from music as used in a social activity. When studying music and health, I’d take that difference into account.
3) Pursuing a career as performing/recording musician has, for the vast majority, dismal ROI in $s and lifestyle so it takes an unusual kind of person to continue making that investment. Maybe factor that into observations of their psychology?
Music can be used to do many things. I remember using it to reinforce my depression (no one ever got better by listening to Lou Reed!) by picking music to match my mood.
There are many kinds of music to match many kinds of moods. For the last few years my ears have been perking up every time I hear militaristic and/or authoritarian music coming from Europe. I looked for a Laibach video to link to and discovered that they’ve remastered and shot a “new” video for Opus Dei (The Great Seal). I’m sure this parodies some historical video I’ve never seen, very British in flavor but then they keep showing mountains that clearly don’t exist in the UK!
We are programmed by what we watch, listen to and read. If you find these links depressing, I recommend a quick click on Trish and Thara (formerly known as the Hindi sisters who sang Abba songs).
Worm’s Eye View: I’ve been playing the bass guitar and singing (semi-pro) for just over 50 years. I’ve had a few successes and a few failures. As I tell people who ask: Sales of the EP I released in 2011 started out kinda slow, and then tapered off. Now my tag line on the bass bulletin board is “I’m not an artist, I’m in the service business.” Meaning whatever you want me to play, I’ll play it. Just about this time a year ago, I quit my little bar band, mainly because it had become too successful: 67 gigs year–my life was ruled by the band calendar. I still feel compelled to get out and play–and sing, sorta–at my former bandleader’s weekly open mic. And I’m always singing, at least to myself. One more thought: The healing power of music is not just a figure of speech. I had bad knee probems for a while. When I was on stage and playing, I never felt anything but great.
Art thou troubled?
Music will calm thee.
Art thou weary?
Rest shall be thine.
Rest shall be thine.”
https://youtu.be/eopQdrPZ7Y0?si=GK4PR8g0j1Dm2kON
Thanks!
One can add as well that every human language is music itself, whether it is listening to a group of Kalahari Bushmen discussing the day’s hunt with all those clicks and pops, or the pre-verbal lectures that human toddlers give, or listening to the humming and surges of a gigantic crowd at a concert or ball game. Indeed, any practiced public speaker is actually singing to you.
Ancient Hindu teachings says that the sounds of language awaken, align, and activate the human nervous system, like ringing a bell or plucking different strings. Sanskrit in particular uses the innate sounds of the human nervous system, taking you within yourself just by speaking it, but especially by reciting sutras and mantras composed for exactly that purpose. (Maybe Bruce Springsteen needs to learn some Sanskrit from the Yajurveda.)
Then there’s how you feel after hearing Afrikaans . . .
And of course every poet knows first hand about the rhythm and meter of different words, and the effects of running them together in different flavors and cadence. Some of them sing–they stand right up off the page.
Ted Gioia plumbs the same topic in both books and his substack. There’s some truth in all of this.
Cormac McCarthy opined that our brain resents language, that being a relatively recent addition to human brain function.
The Monroe Institute makes a lot of noise, what Steinbeck labeled “Whoopdedoodle,” over binaural beats. But again, there’s some solid data amid all the fluff.
Tesla had many thoughts about the place of waves in the universe.
Great topic. Mahalo! I listen and play music every day, it is a must.
This new tune by Hawai’i musicians Ekolu (meaning Three) is a perfect fit with the article. The lyrics are spot-on, brought tears to my eyes when I first heard it.
“The World Needs Music”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrVLTXqetkI
This area has been a real interest of mine for some time.
I served on the board of a local community theatre some time ago. As part of our outreach program, we enlisted performers to volunteer to perform at a clinic. Some of the patients there were really disconnected and just sat in their wheelchairs staring into space. Once the singers started, there was a remarkable difference in the patients — they started tapping their feet, nodding their heads in time to the music. It was one of the most incredible experiences.
Some links that may be of interest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9IHUPamCB4
Alive Inside: A Story of Music and Memory [2014] Documentary
from 2020:
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/news-events/events/music-and-mind-live-renee-fleming
Music and Mind Live with Renée Fleming
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/is-your-brain/202101/how-gabby-giffords-used-music-regain-her-speech
How Gabby Giffords Used Music to Regain Her Speech
I think this would be an absolutely fascinating area to study.
Me too, thanks for the links
This is an important topic. Music got me through very difficult teenage years after having lived in an abusive home. Music was my refuge. Springsteen and Elvis Costello were favorites. I got to see Elvis Costello during his first tour in the US.
Right now I’m looking for comfort music. My 15 year old cat died last night. She was scheduled to be put to sleep today but she did not survive that long. It was not a peaceful death. I tell myself she is not suffering anymore but I cannot get the agonizing way she died out of my mind. I feel traumatized.
She was a rescue that I adopted when she was a kitten. She was my constant companion. Now she is gone and life feels very empty. I am searching for music to honor her memory and to give myself some peace.
Doesn’t everyone love music? I can’t imagine going through life without music. I have a wide variety of music I can enjoy. I have no doubt that music is beneficial to the functioning of my brain and my entire body. Doesn’t moving your body to music feel wonderful? It often is better that sex, and often is a prelude to sex. I grew up listening to the music my older siblings listened to – Peter, Paul & Mary, The Kingston Trio, Bob Dylan, Hootenanny on Saturday nights. Later it was 70s rock. It was the 80s music played by Richard Blade on KROQ in Los Angeles and then Steve Masters on Live 105 in San Francisco that I enjoyed the most. This music has become my favorite and what I listen to primarily to this day.
So here’s a contemplative piano piece:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olPMshbKu3k
Amazingly a UToob search on “requiem for pets” returns similar responses. Take a look.
Oh my, Lena, I’m so sorry about your kitty.
Not sure if this will be down your alley, but it is one of the great works of all time, it works for me. Maybe it’s too sad.
Bach – Julia Hamari – Matthäus Passion – Erbarme dich
Sad but consoling: https://youtu.be/YcnwSCUaeRA?si=ngyVQNocL8nI3Are
Thank you both for your suggestions. They were helpful.
juno mas, I didn’t know there were so many requiems for pets, but given how important they are in our lives, I should not have been surprised.
Alice X, sad music is appropriate at this time. I was in shock over how my sweet cat had died. I needed to be able to cry about her passing. Music that breaks through the numbness and brings us to tears is healing in times of great sorrow.
It was especially poignant that my cat died on Sunday, which was the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. It is the traditional day for Blessing of the Animals. My cat was a great blessing to me. I will miss her for the remaining days of my life and hope to be reunited in the afterlife.
Pets are important to many people. They have a presence of their own. Hopefully, as some time passes, you will find an inspirational reincarnation.
Bless your spirit.
Will Rogers once said “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” I believe the same about cats as well as dogs. The animals I have been privileged to live with and love are most of the reason I believe in good and unconditional love. They are, as you say, are a blessing.
I am deeply sorry for your loss. May you hold close the memory of the blessing of your time together till you meet again.
Lena, you feel traumatized because you are traumatized. The innocence of our beloved creatures lets them walk straight into our heart.
Janet and I have had over a hundred named pets, and it’s the harsh deaths I remember. Those images swamped the good memories in the moment, and linger. We wanted Meimei to die at home, with dignity. We waited too long and it was anything but. I’ve actively sought to reinforce the good memories to counter the sorrow.
I don’t think the answer lies in memory. Our friend Mark was dying of AIDS, in the withdrawing from the world stage, and we brought him kittens and he smiled. Was that cruel? The warmth of the world helps distract from sorrows, and nothing distracts like kitten’s claws and the mess they make. You can still honor the place your kitty kneaded into your heart.
I’m sorry about your dear kitty Lena, it hurts so much to lose our fur babies, they just aren’t here long enough. I’m really sorry about her suffering as well, life is so unfair. The joyous memories of her will overtake that terrible night as time goes on. I know how you feel though, a coyote took my sweet girl the only time she ever escaped to the outside, and while I didn’t see it happen, the fur all over our front yard absolutely had me so hysterical I had to be sedated, and imagining what happened was so traumatic beyond words to me. Sending love and hugs as these first few weeks will be the hardest.
I am so so sorry about your cat’s passing. But it is hard to have to play God. Please forgive yourself.
Lena, I’m very sorry about your kitty. My advice might be too late, but in case you see this, I find all of these to be comforting. (YMMV since music is, after all, subjective.)
Herbie Hancock & Bobby Hutcherson: Minuit aux Champs-Elyseés
Anis Fuleihan: Pastorale (2nd movement) from Concerto for Theremin and Orchestra – the second movement begins in this video at 4:40. The whole thing is a great piece, but the Pastorale movement has an appropriate mood. Sorry for the recording quality, but it’s a live recording from 1945!
Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings. I prefer this Stokowski recording because most conductors play this WAY too slowly.
Nick Drake: River Man
Marisa Monte: Abololô This is in Brazilian Portuguese, and the lyric is topical. “Saudade” (the concept behind the song) is a feeling of nostalgia, loss, or missing a person or place. The final line “gente que sente e que chora; alguem que foi embora” translates as “people who feel and cry; someone who went away.”
So. I’ve commented on this topic often. Whether you just listen, make, or dance to— music is essential to your life. Music is a malleable language that stimulates toddlers, teens, and the rest of us into contemplation, chorus, and choreography.
Rhythm, melody, and harmony combined with an evocative human voice is timeless.
The Arts are not a Hobby!
So listen to this:https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=whitney+houston&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DyJKgDVDZNJc
Music is kind of timeless and damned repetitive, I can listen to something from 1966 and it doesn’t seem dated, whereas a book from the same year might be hopelessly lost in the past.
It’s comfort food for the ears and brain, songs we’ve heard hundreds if not thousands of times.
Ah, music!
Chorale Prelude BWV 668 – Vor deinen Thron tret’ ich hiermit J. S. Bach
Ain’t Gwine to Whistle Dixie Anymo’ Taj Mahal
Instrumental Prelude (Negareh) Faryad Ensemble
The Moonbeam Song Harry Nilsson
I Went to Sleep Beach Boys
New York Skyline Garland Jeffreys
Think Curtis Mayfield
Joy Spring Clifford Brown and Max Roach
Standing Here Wondering Which Way to Go Marion Williams
Mind Playing Tricks on Me Geto Boys
Come Sunday Yusef Lateef
Let the Music Play Billy Preston
Selailai (Attractive Woman) Mohatelli Queens
Love Can Save The World Earl King
Mi Sonsito Eddie Palmieri
A Dream Donny Hathaway
Cinema Paradiso Main Theme Ennio Morricone
Funny But I Still Love You, Ray Charles
Sand and Water Beth Nielson Chapman
Ar Bhruach Na Laoi Liam O’Flynn
Shake It Loose Dolphin Boy feat. Rowena Wells
Holocene Bon Iver
First Days of Spring Noah and the Whale
Have You Ever Been Disappointed Isley Brothers with Jimi Hendrix
There’s Got to Be Rain in Your Life Dorothy Norwood
One More Sunday in Savannah Nina Simone
Requiem, Op. 9: In paradisum Durufle
Let Me Rest Stanley Brothers
Prayer Garden Clifford Coulter
Plymouth Waltz – James Newton Howard (film Promised Land)
Aura Lee John Hartford
Eternal Father Strong to Save (The Navy Hymn) “President’s Own” Marine Corps Band
An Die Musik Schubert, Gerald Moore, piano