Here is a teaser from the workshop we are offering at the Aging in America Conference on Wednesday, MARCH 28th 2012,   in Washington, D.C.:

“Music for Brain Fitness: An Innovative Inter-generational Approach”  from our Music is Brain Food  Recipe Box

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Do you recognize this  contemporary song?   Kids love it.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEKC5pyOKFU

Do you recognize this classic?  It seems to be from a completely different universe.  But is it?

And how about this beloved piece?  What a difference, huh?

Curious about their connection?  Hint:  It lies deep in our DNA.

Come join us in Washington, D.C. at 4 p.m. on March 28th in the Marriott Hotel, Room Maryland B, to find out what it is and how it contributes to brain health.

And come back here for our next post in April to learn the answer, if you can’t be there.

Presidents’ Day seems like the right time to answer this question.

Most of us wince when we have to sing our national anthem because its wide range from low to high notes ( an octave plus a fifth) is beyond most of our abilities to sing comfortably.  Haven’t you often wondered if the celebrity singer at the ball game is going to be able to hit “the rocket’s red glare” without cracking (and mentally cursing Francis Scott Key)?

Well, you can’t blame him for the melody of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

He didn’t write it.  Only the words are his.

The melody was actually composed by John Stafford Smith, an Englishman, sometime in the 1770’s, for an elite London men’s club.

It was originally a drinking song called “To Anacreon in Heaven,” and it bawdily praised the pleasures of wine, women and song. It was so popular at the time that it spread to the lower classes in England and on to America, where many different lyrics were added for different purposes, including the political campaigns of George Washington and John Adams.

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Why was this melody so popular, given that it’s not easy for most people to sing?

Perhaps the expansive leaps of the music suggested the expansive possibilities of the American continent, and the words suggested a glorious future for a victorious new country–the right melody and the right words forming a perfect combination of felt meaning.

It’s not so surprising then that the melody would have easily come to the mind of Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer (who may have been tone deaf), when he saw the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor after a bitter battle during the War of 1812 with England.

By the way, Francis Scott Key himself played only a minor role in the war and its aftermath. He was there in 1814 to negotiate the release of a friend who had been captured by the British during the bombardment of the city.

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You could say that this migration of a British tune, having quite a different origin than you would expect, is one of the great ironies of music history.  But it’s not so unusual.  In 1976, on a radio program celebrating the American bicentennial, Josh spoke about “Tunes, those promiscuous drifters, now mating with one set of lyrics, now another.”  There is something stirring in certain melodies that makes us want to sing them, even when they’re difficult.  And when the old melodies and new words are well- matched, the mating can turn into an enduring marriage

Here is Whitney Houston singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  It seems a fitting requiem for an amazing singer.

A final note:  “The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially adopted as our national anthem only in 1931 during the Hoover administration!

From the time we birthed this site in 2007, the word happiness has been used in a very specific way by us, especially in relation to music.

The concept of happiness we’re interested in comes from scientific studies that are looking for the things that make life truly rich and satisfying.

We’re not bringing you “happy” music so much as music that can make you more aware, awake, and alive.  (Of course, some of that is also “happy” music!)  See our last post.

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So far research suggests that character strengths and activities which:

• stimulate positive emotions

• foster engagement in worthwhile activities alone and with others

• have a strong sense of purpose

• give us feelings of accomplishment

contribute the most to human well being.

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Music is an art that can do all three things.

• It can simply be a pleasurable experience (and that includes sad songs, by the way)

• It can be enjoyed with others or alone

• It can be an extremely meaningful experience

• It can challenge you to learn and grow, whether you perform music or listen to it

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You could say that if you enjoy music, it is one of the most natural and easiest ways for you to enjoy all the benefits of mind/body/spirit-enhancing activities in your daily life.

Our goal is to make you more aware of the amazing number of benefits music can bring you.

That’s why you can find us on the internet under a lot of names besides MUSIC AND HAPPINESS.

We’re also called:

• Music for Flourishing

• Music for Brain Fitness

• Music for Mind Fitness

• Music for Mindfulness

• Music for Resilience

• Music for Positive Aging

• Music for Mind Body Spirit Health

• Good Music Good Life

• We’re on Facebook as “Music and Happiness: Music for the Young at Heart”

We don’t think so.

Research in brain science is finding that listening to music stimulates the whole brain.

Research is also finding that people exercise more when they do it to music.

We’re interested in music as a bridge between generations too.

And in strengthening mental alertness through guided listening and learning about music.

And in music as a way of experiencing key character strengths right in your bones.

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Where do you start so that you can get the full benefit of music’s gifts to the human race?

•  Sign up to join us.  Go to the subscription box on any page of our site and just type in your email address and the name you’d like us to call you by.

• Go to this research site and find out what your character strengths are.  The questionnaires are free and you will be contributing to the research.

• Read our posts and tell us what you would like to know about music by filling out the comment box.   We value your requests!

 

 

 

 

Here’s our first suggestion:     “DON’T WORRY, BE HAPPY”

Recognize the song?  It was written by Bobby McFerrin, one of the most gifted musicians of our time.

We recently read an article on one of our favorite sites, Daily Good, that  helpfully “unpacks” the lyrics to show how they reflect “neuroscience and psychology insights on happiness” based not on feel-good  ideas but on “studies that offered lab-tested validation for McFerrin’s intuitive insight.”  To read Maria Popova’s article, click here.

Her analysis stimulated us to add our own thoughts about this delightful anthem to well being. To get into the mood, watch Bobby McFerrin, with the comic geniuses Robin Williams and Bill Irwin, perform his song.

 

As Ms Popova points out, the lyrics are full of insights into true happiness.

But she omits other great riches in this song that give it even more neuroscientific and psychological value.

What really makes it so powerful is precisely that it is music. Let’s look at the perfect marriage McFerrin has created between the lyrics and the melody.  In fact, unpacking the music as well as the words will help us really appreciate how McFerrin’s “true musician” brings “light into people’s hearts.”

Start by listening to the tune itself.  It is remarkable for its utter simplicity. It is built on only 5 notes–like the 5 fingers on each of our hands.  This is known to musicians as a Pentatonic (for 5) Scale.

This is something anybody can hear by playing the 5 black keys on a piano. Try it yourself  by clicking on our virtual keyboard and tapping on only the black keys.

Simply put, the Pentatonic Scale is a basic building block of music around the world, linking what might seem to be very different songs, eras and cultures through a common music pattern.

Here are some familiar tunes using the Pentatonic Scale: Stephen Foster’s “Oh Susanna,”  the hymn “Amazing Grace,” the folk song “Barbara Allen,” jazz’s “A Tisket A Tasket,” the opening phrase of Gershwin’s “I’ve Got Rhythm,” and the opening of Jerome Kern’s “Ol’ Man River.”  This scale appears in many cultures, including the music of  West Africans, ancient Greeks, Asians, Native Americans, and Celts.

Their songs built on the Pentatonic Scale all share the same musical DNA as “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”!

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So what?

Well, the music is a major reason why the song stays with us.  “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” may sound simple, even simplistic. But it really isn’t.  Its vibrations are ancient and universal. We respond to them with our whole brain, resonating unconsciously to a deep structure that beautifully supports the psychological complexity of the lyrics.  

Try listening again, with new ears, to savor Bobby McFerrin’s creation in its totality.

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To jump further into the world of the fascinating Pentatonic Scale, watch Bobby McFerrin demonstrate it at  the 2009 World Science Festival:

As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 is marked, many people find themselves overwhelmed by all kinds of memories of that day, some of them very personal as well as painful.

We live just north of New York City.  Lynne was driving to her office in the City that morning when she was stopped in upper Manhattan by a policeman who told her, “Somebody tried to blow up the World Trade Center again, so you’d better go home before all the bridges are closed.”  At that early time nobody realized something more unthinkable had happened. Her first thought was of a client who worked at the Center.  Fortunately, that person was at a meeting elsewhere in the City.  But so many others were not as fortunate.

When we heard that the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, under Alan Gilbert, chose Mahler’s 2nd (“Resurrection”) Symphony to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the terrible destruction wrought on September 11th, 2001, we also decided to offer you the “Resurrection” Symphony as our small contribution to the healing of us all.

Mahler’s Symphony No.2 is in 5 movements, written for large orchestra, chorus, and soprano and alto soloists.  This particular music is especially appropriate for such a solemn occasion, we think, because of  the powerful revelations it offers.  It expresses Mahler’s own titanic struggles with the meaning of life in the face of death’s reality.

As you listen to the performance we have chosen–perhaps one of the most transcendent performances of a transcendent work–here are some thoughts to guide your listening.

In his own comments on this symphony, Mahler pondered some of the profound questions he explores in the first movement: Why do we live, why do we suffer? Is it all nothing but a terrible joke?

We must answer these questions, he says, if we are going to be able to continue living.

The first movement presents a contrast between the overwhelming presence of Death–heard in the bleak sounds of a Funeral March–and occasional glimmers of hope in music that prefigures the Resurrection theme of the finale.  This movement ends with a dark plunging, triplet line in the basses as Death reasserts its dominion.

Leonard Bernstein was one of the greatest interpreters and most ardent champions of Mahler.  We encourage you to read some of the listeners’ comments…and perhaps add your own…as you watch this video of his superb performance.

In the second movement of the symphony, the music is meant to suggest nostalgic memories of earlier, happier times with the dead, Mahler tells us– a looking to the past.

In the third movement, the scherzo, St. Anthony of Padua preaches to the fishes, who continue their aimless swimming to and fro the moment he stops.  Mahler tells us that here he tried to convey the disgusting ease with which we return to old ways after a crisis, falling back into the confusion and seeming senselessness of everyday life.

In the fourth movement (“Das Urlicht” or “Primal Light”) the tentative sounds of hope heard in the first movement return at last.  Here Mahler begins to find the meaning he was seeking when he asked:  Is life only a terrible joke? No, the contralto sings. Although mankind lies in deepest need and greatest woe, her comforting closing words are:

“The dear Lord will lend me a little light.

He will light my way to eternal, blissful life.”

In the glorious finale, introduced by the stirring words of the chorus—“Thou shalt rise again, yes again….” the singers speak for and to us:

“Believe, my heart…

O believe: thou wast not born in vain!

Thou hast not lived and suffered in vain! …

With wings I have won for myself,

I shall soar in fervent love aloft

To the Light no eye has yet beheld!

I shall die to live again!”

Could you feel your own spirit soar with the music?

In the end, is it Religion or Art that gives meaning to the tragedies of life? Can one be separated from the other here?

A few words about Gustav Mahler:

Mahler composed between the twilight years of the great Austro-German symphonic tradition and the beginning of the modern era.  His was a soul riven by multiple conflicts. In his words: “I am thrice homeless—as a Bohemian born in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world.”

He was also one of the outstanding conductors of his day. He held major positions at the Vienna Court Opera, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera, among others. Yet, he felt that what he achieved in artistic excellence on the podium came at a heavy price because it took him away from composing.

Added to the mix is the tension between his work as the big orchestral writer (as in the first and fifth movements of the “Resurrection” Symphony) and the one who reduces his sound to the most intimate level of chamber music (as  in the “Primal Light” movement).

Finally, there is the frequent pull he felt between writing in a simple folk song style and being the architect of vast symphonic structures which require large orchestral forces that approximate what Wagner called for in his Ring of the Nibelung.

We are also commemorating the centennial of Mahler’s death in 2011 (1860-1911).