Music Performance– Part IV – Scientific point of view

When studying the basic science of sound, one discovers that sound once sound is released, it is actually a waveform vibrating in the air that is then interpreted by our ear and translated to our brain as sound. Not only does our ear “hear” the vibration of the sound, our body consequently “feels” the vibration of the sound. In general, sound is not overtly “felt” as akin to touching our skin. Observation of the body’s reaction to sound on a molecular level, evidences the molecular structure reflecting or absorbing a sound wave. Further scientific evidence such as the use of Music Therapy as a viable medical science displays the societal acceptance that music, or sound, holds frequencies that are able to affect the body’s molecular structure and promote healing, and the converse, disease.

Cymatics is the study of waveform phenomena. This study is relevant to the aesthetic experience of music since sound is waveforms. A simple experiment of filling a pan with a thin layer of sand and drawing a violin bow across the pan edge demonstrates how sound moves objects, in this case sand. Without directly touching the sand itself, the sound vibrations from the violin bow creates a wave pattern in the sand. Using this basic understanding of cymatics, we can begin to understand how sound can effect the body.

Submitting that the body is a large complex organism, it can be inferred that such a small absorption of sound waves, such as I encountered in the concert, would not have had such a large affect on me. However, if we think about the consistency in which our society regularly encounters sound, the high absorption of numerous sound waves can be cause for some type of affect, be it positive or negative. Thus, from the point of the scientific community, there is plausible evidence that my personal experience could have been an acute form of large grade cymatic experience.


For further study on cymatics, http://www.cymaticsource.com/