Reflection on sound

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During the week of April 2, we had Professor Allen come in and talk about ethnomusicology, specifically his research in India exploring art music and devotional music. In addition, we had the Sound group make a presentation about their insights on the sense. I learned from Evan that there are microtones in our music that we hear but can’t discern, such as how a piano key connects to three strings to make the sound of a single note. Microtones can be used to differentiate music of different cultures due to the preferences of a group of people have towards a specific scale. We saw an example of such with the band King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and their song, Rattlesnake! In addition, we saw a man spell out words with an Overtone Analyzer (a computer application which I downloaded after), and how our brain makes sounds by syncing different frequencies in both ears, called binaural beats.


Something  reminds me that there is so much knowledge about music that lies below the surface, or beyond what you hear the first time. Music is like a language I don’t understand. I can listen to it and comment on the melodies I hear, but I don’t know what it means or the significance of what’s being conveyed. Though I was certainly out of my realm in this unit, I appreciate being able to scratch the surface at understanding how the world hears music.

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