by CKR
Sunday I went to a concert of the Santa Fe Symphony. I wasn’t acquainted with Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto before I went. Marc-André Hamelin interpreted it brilliantly, and the piece itself is remarkable, beginning with a simple Russian folk melody, running all the way to jazz with stretches of trademark Rachmaninoff lushness. I’ve got to get the cd.
An orchestra or band is a remarkable thing. Learning to play an instrument begins with simple mechanical steps: you place your fingers so, blow this hard, use so much pressure with the bow as you read the notes on the page. A more practiced musician no longer thinks about what her fingers are doing and finds subtle ways to refine the tone. A virtuoso plays the music, not thinking at all about the marks on the page or finger placement, following the composer’s logic, making the phrases sing.
Brain scan studies are beginning to show that when two primates interact, the same sets of brain cells (mirror neurons) become active in both. Monkeys watching other monkeys reach for food go through similar mental motions. Further, areas involved with emotions light up when people perceive other people to feel pain or disgust.
Playing in an orchestra must involve mirroring on a grand scale. Rehearsal intensifies the mirroring. And the audience must be mirroring as well.
One hot New Jersey night, I rehearsed with a summer band in the town’s municipal building. The foyer barely contained us all. We were working through The Pines of the Appian Way, by Respighi, playing a section, going back and refining a phrase, back and forth, repeating, and then we started from the beginning, one more time. The slow relentless rhythm of Roman soldiers marching on the stones, the suspense of the gathering crescendo worked on us. We expected more stop and go, but something was happening, the music seizing us and not letting go.
The sound built and reverberated. The floor and walls vibrated, and my mind blended with the music. It was happening to our conductor, too, Mr. Mairs, who taught the high school band. You could see it in his face and in the motions of his arms. There were no mistakes, no false notes, no stopping until the immmense end.
Silence. Nobody breathed for seconds. Mr. Mairs sat very still on his stool, his hands and head down. Then we allowed our amazement out.
Music and rhythm have been used by humans to come together, for religion, for war, for sex, for entertainment. The mirroring of brain activity must have something to do with it. Other aspects of music and rhythm probably amplify that activity.
Learning a language is similar to learning a musical instrument: first the mechanical production of sounds and memorizing the sounds that correspond to meanings, then stumbling though, substituting the unknown for the known, then speaking our thoughts easily. And communication depends on mirroring what the other is saying, anticipating, hearing, being surprised, a dance of logic and understanding.
Scientists are investigating the relationship between mirror neurons and language. T. S. Eliot saw the phenomenon of music some time ago.
…or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all, but you are the music
While the music lasts.
The Dry Salvages