The tonic as homeMusic theory, social

psychology, ecology, culture

Richard Parncutt

European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music12-16 August 2009, Jyväskylä, FinlandSysMus Graz

Is music psychology progressing or stagnating?

A personal impression

until 19381980-2000

2000-

Possible solutions:Risk takingNew ideas and methodsMulti- and interdisciplinarityNew approaches to evaluation (peer review)

Some hard old questionsAre we a bit scared of them?

• Why do people like music so much?– What is the ultimate origin/function of music?

• Why do people like tonal music so much? – Cognitive efficiency?

• Reference points in other domains– Optimal complexity (Berlyne)– Symbolism?

• Individual orderliness? • Social power structures?

Why do people like major-minor tonality? A century after Schönberg?!

– Naturalness/familiarity of harmonic series?– Appeal of consonance? Beauty of triads?• fusion, smoothness

– Cognitive efficiency of tonal hierarchy?• tonic – triad – scale?

– Diverse possibilities within a single system?– Once learned, never unlearned?– Global politics?

Why do people like tonality?Aristotle’s Poetics

Structure of drama:1. audience involvement emotions e.g. fear2. resolution catharsis

Analogy between drama and sonata form?Is resolution of dramatic conflict like return home?

Why do people like tonality? Lotman’s deviation aesthetics

• Art/music/literature focuses either on – identity: folk, medieval...– or deviation: romantic, modern...

• Tonality does both: first deviate then return– deviation attention, interest– repetition fulfilment, affirmation satisfying artistic experience

Why do people like tonality?Music as a virtual person

• Music: relationships and dramas?– philosophical literature on persona in music

• Consonance (harmonic and melodic)– nice people, harmonious relationships?

• Tonic triad/pitch– self, parent, friend, family?

Positivism and relativism

Interesting questions have unclear answers!• sciences: observation, evidence• humanities: intuition, discourse• optimal: synergetic mixture?

Rest of talk

• “home” and music• psychology of “home”• “home” and the tonic

Music about “home”• National anthems

• Popular expression of national pride – songs about countries, I still call Australia home– songs about cities, New York New York

• School songs

“Home” in music

• Identity and ritual– modern teenage subcultures– religion, spirituality; gods, spirits– adapting to local social changes

• Own versus Other music– national/cultural identity and xenophobia– feeling at home (migration)

• Social relationships in song lyrics– love vs loneliness, children– home as safe ground, security

Typically musical emotionsZentner, M., Grandjean, D. & Scherer, K. R. (2008). Emotions evoked by the sound of music. Emotion.

Tender longing: Affectionate, melancholic, nostalgic, dreamy, sentimentalAmazement: Amazed, admiring, fascinated, impressed, goose bumps, thrills Tranquility: Soothed, calm, in peace, meditative, sereneJoy: Joyful, happy, radiant, elated, content Activation: Disinhibited, excited, active, agitated, energetic, fiery Power: Heroic, triumphant, proud, strongSensuality: Sensual, desirous, languorous, aroused (sexually) Transcendence: Ecstatic, spiritual feeling, mystical feeling, illuminated Dysphoria: Anxious, anguished, frightened, angry, irritated, nervous, tense Sadness: Sorrowful, depressed, sad

Confirmatory factor analysis:Wonder, transcendence, tenderness, nostalgia, peacefulness, power, joyful

activation, tension, sadness

“Home” and “love” in pop songs

• Predictions: 1. music is often about “tender longing”

• highest Cronbach alpha in Zentner et al.

associated words occur in pop song lyrics2. nostalgia is about being away from home

“home” (like love) is an important theme in pop

• Method: – file of 600 songs that I know– search for “home” (cf. Kreutz 2000)

“Home” in Beatles lyricsnot all songs searched, not all mentions of “home”, so far only A-I

• All my loving: And then while I'm away I'll write home every day And I'll send all my loving to you

• Back in the USSR: Been away so long I hardly knew the place, Gee, it's good to be back home

• Get back: Jojo left his home in Tucson, Arizona For some California grass

• Golden slumbers: Once there was a way To get back homeward• Hard day’s night: But when I get home to you I find the things that

you do Will make me feel all right... When I'm home everything seems to be all right ... feeling you holding me tight

• Honey pie: I'm in love, but I'm lazy, So won't you please home• It won’t be long: Since you left me, I'm so alone, Now you're coming,

you're coming on home

“Home” in Simon & GarfunkelThe Boxer: And I’m laying out my winter clothes, wishing I was gone, goin’

homeCecilia: You’re breaking my heart, You’re shaking my confidence daily. Oh

Cecilia, I’m down on my knees, I’m begging you please to come homeKeep the customers satisfied: Gee but it’s great to be back home, Home is

where I want to beHomeward bound: Home where my thought's escaping, Home where my

music's playing, Home where my love lies waiting Silently for me

A song about home without the word “home”:My little town

(Many others like that?)

“Home” in other oldies

Bread Just to have you back again: I would give anything I own, Give up me

life, my heart, my homeIf: There’s no one home but you, You’re all that’s left me to

Creedence Clearwater Revival Long as I see the light: Put a candle in the window, ’cause I feel

I’ve got to move. Though I’m going, going, I’ll be coming home soon

Lookin’ out my back door: Just got home from Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy

“Home” in yet more oldiesBob Dylan It’s all over now, Baby Blue: All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home.

All your reindeer armies are all going homeCat Stevens Cat’s in the cradle: When you comin' home son? I don't know when, but

we'll get together then son. You know we'll have a good time thenOtis Redding Dock of the Bay: left my home in Georgia, Headed for the 'Frisco bayBarry Manilow I write the songs: My home lies deep within you And I've got my own

place in your soulAlbert Hammond It never rains in California: I'm underloved, I'm underfed, I wanna go

home ... Will you tell the folks back home I nearly made it?Monkees Take the last train to Clarksville: And I don’t know if I’m ever coming homeJanis Joplin Me and Bobby McGee: He's looking for that home And I hope he finds itJohn Denver Country roads, Take me home, To the place I belong;Eagles Desperado: Your pain and your hunger Are driving you home(Many artists) Green green grass of home: The old home town looks the same as I

step down from the train

“Home” in even older oldiesChattanooga choo choo: Won't you choo-choo me home?Old cotton fields back home: When I was a little bitty baby My mama

would rock me in the cradle, In them old cotton fields back homeKeep the homefires burning while my heart is yearning...Give my regards to Broadway: Remember old pal When you get back

homeFor me and my gal: And sometime I'm going to build A little home

for two, For three or four or more, In lovelandThe man I love: We'll build a little home, Just meant for twoCan't help lovin' that man of mine: And, maybe I can stay out as late

as can be, Home without him ain't nothin' to me

Home: Evolution Culture• Animal territory

– investment of time and effort– Own versus Other; social behavior; breeding– reference for spatial perception– biological and behavioral evolution

• Human hunter-gatherers after the “cultural explosion” (Mithen)– homelands, sacred sites; ownership, responsibility, identity

• Early agricultural societies from ca. 10,000 BC– ownership of land and buildings– artistic decoration of home construction of identity

Evolutionary psychology of “home”Does “home” promote survival and reproduction?

Location & buildings: defence or vigilance

Family and friends: social behavior

Survival Physical protection from weather and attack, incl during sleep and healing; spatial reference

Social support, sharing

Reproduction Safety during sex? Children: protection & psychological development

(Good) Behavior at “home”Behaviors that promote survival and reproduction

Buildings or location; defence or vigilance

Family and friends

Survival Loyalty betrayal

Generosityfree riding

Reproduction Privacy Faithfulness incest

The inner and outer homeHow art and music create social identity

domain Traditional dominance

Art and music

Inner home

family women domestic, temporary

Outer home

town, country

men public, durable

The home and interculturality

Identification with culture, language, nation• customs and traditions• national identity and personal identity• xenophobia and the politics of fear

Plug: Please tell your friends aboutConference on Applied Interculturality ResearchGraz, Austria 7-10 April 2010Deadline: 31 August 2009

Prediction: If home is of central importance to humans, it should be a constant theme in all art incl. music

The tonic as home

• Emotional character of tonic arrival– causally related to

coming home?

• Narrative character of tonal progression– like a journey in a pitch

space? (e.g. Lerdahl, Larson, Kurth?)

Tonic as home in Western classical music (theory)

• Beethoven piano sonata Op. 81a – 3 movements “farewell, absence, return”

• Schubert Die schöne Müllerin– Distance from tonic (Bb) on cycle of fifths

symbolizes estrangement and death

“Home key” metaphor only in the English language?

e.g. Bill Caplin: Structural functionsStart – middle – end

Tonic return signals closing function

Leonard B. MeyerEmotion and meaning in music

Is authentic cadence like coming home?• fulfilment of expectation? • implication – realisation?• positive emotion, satisfaction?• analogy: basic needs fulfilled?

MimesisPotolsky 2006: art, literature, theatre, psychology, sociology, anthropology

• Plato and Aristotle• Imitation, description, representation

– nature, truth, beauty, mannerisms, actions, situations, ideas...

• Speaks to something deep in human nature– effective if resonates with basic cognitive functions

• Simulates (but does not reproduce) a familiar world– dependence on social and historical context

• Appeals to conventional beliefs about reality, not nature– E.g. not “home” as patchwork family

Mimesis in music

• imitation of natural sounds• sonification of physical gesture • tonic as home?

Are concepts “tonic” and “music”both related to “home”?

e.g. Other music:– Other cultures– Other tonalities

The tonic as home

• Convergent evidence from different disciplines in humanities and sciences

• Tentative answers to a difficult question• Anti-positivist approach