Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Can Sounds Be Sacred?

Once we hear certain animals, they become a part of our spirit. I don't think you can hear a loon's call without the sound in some way become a part of you. Nor perhaps the calling of coyotes. Given that our species invented music, is it all that implausible that certain sounds should become fixed in our memories as almost akin to a spiritual experience?

1 comment:

Ashwin said...

Fixed in the sense that they are part of the way our brain works, not evolutionarily handed down.

If you think about dancing styles versus music styles, you can sort of see the similarity. Traditional music that uses drums, as those in Africa and India tend to generate jumping moves, while the traditional European moves create swaying steps and movements.

Somehow, we automatically identify sound with something concrete. Not sure about spirituality.

Kurt Vonnegut:
If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC