Exploring the Language of Music: How Music Transcends Words and Connects Us All

2/23/2024

In a previous post, I talked about how music and language are linked and how music is a universal language. We start by learning letters and words in speech, as we do with pitches and rhythms in music. As we grow, we learn more words that can add to our communication abilities with others to provide nuances and more accurate information. You might be thinking, but what about music? It can't communicate like that. Actually, music is great at communicating feelings and those nuances - just see this article from Dartmouth College!

If an infant or young child is crying, mothers and fathers all over the world will hold, rock, and sing quietly to their child. The child may not understand the words, but the music, singing, and love felt in that moment are communicated through feelings of touch, sound, and sight. Many children's toys are musical. Why? Musical toys serve many purposes, including stimulating the child's brain, inviting their brain to learn and remember melodies, and promoting happiness and relaxation in the child.

   Have you ever listened to music and felt the urge to tap your foot, move a little, or even get up and dance? Has listening to a song ever brought back a special memory of someone, someplace, or something? Have you ever shed a tear, laughed, or felt tense while listening to music? Then you understand how much music has in common with those languages – the music was helping or making you feel emotions that connect you to different experiences.

   Composers like Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Schumann, and many others were “pouring out” their own emotions of sadness, anger, frustration, and despair as they wrote their music, and you can feel
those same emotions hundreds of years later when you play or listen to their music. Does a person have to understand music to appreciate its beauty or its ability to communicate feelings? Not at all.

   All people - including infants, people suffering from mental illnesses or developmental disabilities, and even animals can be calmed by music. When I was eight or nine years old, my parents brought me to a city concert. The city blocked off an intersection, set up a big stage and the symphony orchestra members came out and played a pop concert outdoors. People like us brought lawn chairs or sat on blankets on the street to listen. There were a few police officers out to provide security. At one point in the concert, a homeless woman was walking by on the sidewalk, but she wasn't in summer clothes like most people, but was wearing several layers of clothes and also a heavy winter coat. At the time, the Waltz of the Blue Danube by Johann Strauss, Jr. was being performed. Suddenly, she began dancing and moving to the music. In that brief moment, even though she seemed like an outsider, she was, like all of us, enjoying the music and forgetting our troubles, and she was happy enough to feel like dancing to the music.

   Sometimes, we may not be able to find the right words to say or we may not even need words to communicate. Hans Christian Andersen, a Dutch author of fairy tales, is credited with the quote, “Where words fail, music speaks.” Obviously, he felt that music can communicate better than words sometimes. Do you agree? How do you feel about this quote?

   If you want to learn more about our course offerings at the Music & Language Learning Center, schedule a free consultation with us today!