{"id":181,"date":"2025-05-06T13:59:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T12:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/?p=181"},"modified":"2025-09-10T11:45:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T10:45:39","slug":"epj-3-the-amazing-rabbit-hole-of-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arsvitae.blog\/index.php\/2025\/05\/06\/epj-3-the-amazing-rabbit-hole-of-music\/","title":{"rendered":"EPJ #3: The Amazing Rabbit Hole of Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Music is a peculiar thing. By creating a set of sounds with specific rhythms and pitches, it can evoke particular thoughts or emotions. In a universe where modern science claims randomness, why does this seemingly simple physical phenomenon possess such a specific ability to affect us?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this journal entry, I want to ponder in this question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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What is EPJ<\/strong>? (you can skip this part if you already know what this series is about)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EPJ<\/strong> stands for Everyday Pilgrim Journal<\/strong>. If you’re new to this series, check out the first entry I wrote here<\/a>. In short, I am here to explore the beauty inherent in everyday life, to understand the recurring theme of beauty through seeming foolishness. This is a theme exemplified by Christ, a “foolish” carpenter who claimed divinity and then faced brutal execution by crucifixion. Yet his followers insisted they witnessed his resurrection, and his influence remains too massive to ignore even until today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This paradox of Christ, that he is considered the “ultimate beauty” and the “ultimate fool” is what many great people over the centuries have grappled with. Even as the modern world tries to silence or diminish this wonderful figure, I am compelled to show that it is impossible to do so. I want to look at the details of everyday life through the perspective of humility. This way I can uncover glimpses of the intuitive, mysterious beauty that Christ’s life and legacy continue to inspire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With the internet and music streaming services, we have countless music choices. Music can help us cope with sadness or energize us during physical exercise. Even great thinkers of the past have noticed music’s unique ability to influence us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some relevant quotes to set the mood:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rhythm and harmony permeate the inner part of the soul more than anything else, affecting it most strongly and bringing it grace, so that if someone is properly educated in music and poetry, it makes him graceful, but if not, then the opposite.<\/p>\n\u2013Plato<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Music charms us, although its beauty consists only in the agreement of numbers and in the counting, which we do not perceive but which the soul nevertheless continues to carry out, of the beats or vibrations of sounding bodies which coincide at certain intervals.<\/p>\n\u2013Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Many of our passions have no particular cry associated with them, and yet music may express them.<\/p>\n\u2013Michel-Paul Guy de Chabanon<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.<\/p>\n\u2013Victor Hugo<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The music surged in my ears, truth seeped into my heart, and feelings of devotion overflowed.<\/p>\n\u2013St. Augustine of Hippo<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Multiple studies in neurology also agree that music has a \u2018magical power\u2019 to influence us deeply. Such as this 2023 research paper from Romania titled “Cognitive Crescendo: How Music Shapes the Brain\u2019s Structure and Function<\/a><\/em>” that says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“…our brain\u2019s reaction to music, whether in perception or production, is a symphony of neural activations across multiple regions, underpinning our rich emotional and cognitive experiences with melodies.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why? Again, music is just a set of arranged sounds that somehow sound good to our ear. Just picture this, even the most complicated music compositions are basically just arranging certain frequencies to be played in certain timing, with certain dynamics, loudness and color or accents. But these sounds somehow can inflict something upon us, they make us sad, happy, lost ourselves, or merely satisfy our boredom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you know a little bit about music theory, you’ll be amazed at how much pattern and seemingly designed proportions can be found in music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recommend you to watch this video briefly if you\u2019re interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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