new post blues

on the physiology of musical receptivity

what do we know about the way a person
receives music and what can we know about the
physiological response which happens naturally
in the human

call it esoteric madness
call it fundamental hacking
into the intellect
call it theft call it what you will
trespassing
i don't know what to call it
call it anything you want
maybe that's the game
call it anything you want

let me start with the sister whose work is
in physiology
she reported that the human person is
distinguished from other forms of life by a complex
neurological physiological response mechanism
one that can provide a whole host of responses to stimuli

the ear the larynx the lungs the brain the heart
all are activated by musical sound
edorphine seratonin epinephrine
histamines and what not are generated in
wondrous supply by musical stimulation

why in hell's name do we think highpowered musical
extravaganzas are so popular

it is a force of vast social manipulation
based on scientific understanding of the
early 20th century
it is a form of managerial manipulation of people
through the promulgation of electrified sound
it is mind control it is a form of
tacitly and ignorantly agreed upon
coercion it is too late it's all over everyone has sold out
(o excuse me...running off on the type there)

her last name (the benedictne sister in question)is stanley
and i wonder
is she related to ralph
that's what i was thinking about
the monk's last name is pauley
stanley and pauley
the stanely and pauley show

anyway
her work is with electric machines
which provide some access to healing to
patients who have withstood surgical operations
and with patients suffering from
residual pain
she claims to know success
people feel better after lowgrade audible
vibration coursing through the body
like waves of music

the musician expounded the
controversial theory of a french
otolaryngologist
basic froggy eye ear nose and throat dude
one dr tomasin

who discovered that the inner ear
where the little bones are
where the "mechanism" of hearing takes place
is a source of biochemical response
and that this response is activated by
sound
the idea promulgated by both the
brother and the sister
was the fully formed hearing potential
in the womb at 4 months
the connection to the womb what we hear in the womb

mother's voice is the first music

and why babies often sing before they talk
and why music is such a fundamental force of intellectual life
and why cognition often takes place around music
why music is perforce the epistemological ground work
for saying anything
i know because i have heard and have sung music

but of course

i left before it was over
the talk last night
sunday night at the abbey

( i wondered if my endless summer project
would be a matter of didactic concern
for the crowd gathered there)

what am i talking about this once again monday morn
in autumn with the temp now 39 degrees outside

here's what

people in the middle ages knew about the
physiological response of music
they spoke and wrote about how the
body is excited in states of various disease
how mental activity is indeed evident in
what might otherwise be noted as a comatose person

sources
i suppose you want sources
bothe augustine and boethius wrote
treatises on music which allude
to the awareness of profound understanding
of musical power

start there

hildegaard of bingen's music is
marked by an exquisite sense
of the intense chemical high
she must've observed nuns dropping over
all the time
and looked upon it smilingly knowing that
at certain registers there's a fit
bound to happen
when the nuns begin fainting you know
that liturgy needs some rules


jacques de Liege' is a name to note
this guy knew the right stuff
this guy knew what music intends
this guy knew about harmonics and
pleasant descant as a natural expression
of sound which makes people either
shit their pants or achieve something on the order
of orgasm

my point
modern scientific insight is to music
what the pliers is in a dentist's hand
beware be weary be wired be weird

the lute players of old knew they knew
beyond the shadow of a doubt they understood
more completely than any scientist
the mysterious disturbing exhilirating transcendental power
of music
and they saw women throw their undies
(so to speak)

how many women fantasized about being in bed with
frank sinatra in 1955
and why
because musicians have always known
without having to shread the evidence into
harshly manipulated concepts
that music is power

even david knew this with his harp
he tempered the madness of saul

forgive reader(s)
i am in no mood to expound upon the
power of music
i wish only to play the strings and let
the notations falls wheres its mays

nobility attends the musical adventure
only when the musician who wishes to
philosophize about music speaks with his friends
and to this regard the monk and the nun
must be commended
but they failed in presenting not real music
music expressed through the real hands
of real musicians
but they presented recorded music
a piece from a mozart piano concerto

here (hear) again it sounded like muzak
i was offended
it was presented over some very paltry speakers
through the reduction of digital recording
through a computer program through a chip or two
i was so put off i nearly screamed
i was so disappointed so mocked in the very act of hearing
that i nearly staged an open public rebellion
a demonstration against all recorded music
so aware that what i want is the real thing
i crave the real thing i do not want a
plastic representation of the real thing
i want to be able to
make love if only in my mind
with the beautiful cellist or the diva
warbling out an aria of sorts

( i contrast this whole diatribe with the awareness
of a performance earlier in the day
by karen savoca
who sort of made love with us as we listened
and it was well sort of delightful
folky earthy funk
yet she too was amplified
but there was enough in her voice to carry
to the real realm of musical discernment)

i could almost smell her breath

my fury has not as yet abated
i'm still angry at the two presenters
even though they fulfill to a certain degree
the essential requirement for inclusion in the
realm of true musicians known to people like boethius
and (...who else?)

ah well
maybe as i strum my guitar
the fury will recede
and i will accept once again
the scent and the fading colors
of autumn

anon