Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

The Meaning of Life 537his suggestion may make sense if it is broadened to include all emotionalcalls. Whimpering, whining, crying, weeping, moaning, growling, cooing,laughing, yelping, baying, cheering, and other ejaculations have acousticsignatures. Perhaps melodies evoke strong emotions because their skeletonsresemble digitized templates of our species' emotional calls. Whenpeople try to describe passages of music in words, they use these emotionalcalls as metaphors. Soul musicians mix their singing with growls,cries, moans, and whimpers, and singers of torch songs and country-andwesternmusic use catches, cracks, hesitations, and other emotional tics.Ersatz emotion is a common goal of art and recreation; I will discuss thereasons in a following section.4. Habitat selection. We pay attention to features of the visual worldthat signal safe, unsafe, or changing habitats, such as distant views,greenery, gathering clouds, and sunsets (see Chapter 6). Perhaps we alsopay attention to features of the auditory world that signal safe, unsafe, orchanging habitats. Thunder, wind, rushing water, birdsong, growls, footsteps,heartbeats, and snapping twigs all have emotional effects, presumablybecause they are thrown off by attention-worthy events in the world.Perhaps some of the stripped-down figures and rhythms at the heart of amelody are simplified templates of evocative environmental sounds. Inthe device called tone painting, composers intentionally try to evokeenvironmental sounds like thunder or birdsong in a melody.Perhaps a pure example of the emotional tug of music may be foundin cinematic soundtracks. Many movies and television shows literallyorchestrate the viewers' emotions from beginning to end with quasimusicalarrangements. They have no real rhythm, melody, or grouping,but can yank the moviegoer from feeling to feeling: the climactic risingscales of silent films, the lugubrious strings in the mushy scenes of oldblack-and-white movies (the source of the sarcastic violin-bowing gesturethat means "You are trying to manipulate my sympathy"), the ominoustwo-note motif from Jaws, the suspenseful cymbal and drumbeatsin the Mission Impossible television series, the furious cacophony duringfights and chase scenes. It's not clear whether this pseudo-music distillsthe contours of environmental sounds, speech, emotional cries, or somecombination, but it is undeniably effective.5. Motor control. Rhythm is the universal component of music, andin many idioms it is the primary or only component. People dance, nod,shake, swing, stride, clap, and snap to music, and that is a strong hintthat music taps into the system of motor control. Repetitive actions like