Why do sounds of music and instruments and major chords give us pleasure?
Sunday, October 5th, 2008
Curious George asked:
Biologically, we have never encountered any form of instrument, or scale, or intervals in our past. So how come music notes can move us so, make our hairs stand on end. Especially how come major chords seem happy, minor seem sad, and when you hear notes played chromatically at the same time, it just sounds awful. How could sounds that we never heard as we were evolving seem to be encoded into our brain to give us happiness, sadness, or uneasiness?
Derrick
Biologically, we have never encountered any form of instrument, or scale, or intervals in our past. So how come music notes can move us so, make our hairs stand on end. Especially how come major chords seem happy, minor seem sad, and when you hear notes played chromatically at the same time, it just sounds awful. How could sounds that we never heard as we were evolving seem to be encoded into our brain to give us happiness, sadness, or uneasiness?
Derrick