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minor and major thirds, and fourths - and they sing spontaneous little songs. Individual children differ markedly in their musical abilities, the range of these differences being even greater than that which occurs in the development of linguistic ability. Outstanding examples of the latter are Albert Einstein who did not talk until he was three and, in contrast, Jean-Paul Satre who was writing books at the age of seven.
Pre-verbal communication between mother and child initiates ego development, the sense of reality separate from self. Also during this pre-verbal stage, the child develops a capacity to understand moods expressed in the mother's voice, conveyed by such musical qualities as cadence, timbre and pace rather than by the words she speaks (of which she is probably more aware). The child actually becomes quite expert in the interpretation of paralingual cues. Because all of this meaningful musical experience by children precedes their comprehension of language, psychoanalysts believe this may explain why music resists definition in purely logical terms, as well as why it has a heavy impact on our emotions.
Unfortunately, except for those with exceptional ability, children's musical intelligence rarely develops significantly beyond the early school years, mainly due, it is believed to lack of use. With language acquisition, the whole family, including the child, becomes so enthralled at their new found skill that music is relegated to a very poor second place relative to development of the spoken word.
Music and Emotions.
Only once in a thousand mortal lives is there any great appreciation of harmonics. But be not discouraged; some day a real musician may appear on Urantia, and whole peoples will be enthralled by the magnificent strains of his melodies. One such human being could forever change the course of a whole nation, even the entire civilized world. It is literally true, "melody has power a whole world to transform." (500)
For a long time humans have been aware of the power of music to transform the individual to a "higher" self. Plato believed that "rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul". He regarded the study of harmony as conducive to the "liberation of the soul from the tyranny of the senses", which implies a similar psychological distinction between mere perception (directly dependent on sense organs) and an inbuilt, inherent response to harmonious rhythms. Plato believed that this response could lead to a state of being whereby negative emotions are dissolved and actually changed to peace and harmony with the environment.
Research findings have conclusively confirmed Plato's beliefs, and show that the emotions of the individual can be altered by music. Hence music is a commonly used therapeutic tool with individuals who have difficulty in controlling aggressive behaviour, stress, anxiety and fear. Even more fascinating is the recent research of the psychology of music into the impact of the social environment, the person's emotional level, music as a mediator, and its feedback effects through the environment and individuals, in order to produce an altered state of group emotions. There is a very real possibility that not only the listener's state of emotions but also their social behaviour and their treatment of others in numerous everyday social micro-episodes may be perceptibly and differentially affected by listening to music. The type of social change - increased irritation, aggression, calm, or pro-social behaviour - is dependent upon the quality of music heard.
Such studies show that there is a tendency for the arousing complex melodies, when they are played at a very high listening level, to incline people towards aggression. In situations in which people have been aroused by high, complex music, overreactions are likely to occur in response to relatively slight additional provocations that, ordinarily, would be brushed aside.
Conversely, simple, soft melodies may reduce the level of arousal and reaction more so than would be the case with aroused individuals who heard no music. Interestingly people who were exposed to soft, simple melodies and whose anger subsided whilst listening, subsequently chose to listen to this same kind of music when their anger was again aroused. Hence they had learned to actively seek melodies having those properties that tend to alleviate negative emotional states.
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