Oh What Songs of the Heart: Experiencing the Unique Power of Music in our Daily Lives

Laura and Brian Ebie2012 Single Adult Conference

Kirtland, Ohio

Psalm 150• 150 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary:

praise him in the firmament of his power.• 2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according

to his excellent greatness.• 3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise

him with the psaltery and harp.• 4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him

with stringed instruments and organs.• 5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon

the high sounding cymbals.• 6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD.

Praise ye the LORD.

Music Affects Us Physiologically• Three Domains:

• Cognitive• What we know

• Affective• What we feel

• Psychomotor• How we respond

Music Affects Us Physiologically: The Cognitive Domain

• Music listening activities have been linked to:• Improvement in mental clarity

• Lasting effects on ADD/ADHD• Ability to cope• Ability to retain information

• Advertising has been using this for years… • Increased evidence of Whole-Brain activity (right/left

hemispheres)• Increased productivity in the workplace• Significant positive effects upon Alzheimer’s/Parkinson’s

patients

Music Affects Us Physiologically: The Affective Domain

• Music listening activities have been linked to:• Improved attitude/mood• Reduction of negative emotions

• Alzheimer’s patients (Sundown Syndrome)• Feelings of well-being

• An effective treatment in episodes of depression• “Whenever I feel afraid, I hold my head erect

And whistle a happy tune, so no one will suspect I’m afraid…And every single time,the happiness in the tune convinces me that I’m not afraid.”

• Alleviation of Pre- and Post-operative anxiety• Improvement in emotional expression• Increased sensitivity to cultural differences

Music Affects Us Physiologically: The Psychomotor Domain• Music listening activities have been linked to:

• Improvement in motor function • Rhythm stimulates movement

• Reduction in tremors/shaking• Lower stress hormone levels

• Cortisol levels drop, even under anesthesia• Evidence for the use of soothing music as an empirically-based

intervention for sleep disorders• Physical Improvement

• therapeutic music exercises help improve verbal output for people with aphasia, strengthen respiratory and vocal systems, stimulate language development in children, and increase fluency and articulation. 

• Regulates heart rate, lowers blood pressure• Stronger immune systems

• After listening to music, the levels of the antibody immunoglobin A, the immune system's first line of defense, were heightened

Music and the Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor Domains in the Scriptures

• A few quick examples…

• Cognitive: II Kings 3:9-20• Affective: I Samuel 16:23• Psychomotor: Joshua 6:15-20

Thinking About Music• “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the

imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything; It is the essence of order and lends to all that is good, just, and beautiful.”

- Plato

"Music directly imitates the passions or states of the soul...when one listens to music that imitates a certain passion, he becomes imbued with the same passion; and if over a long time he habitually listens to music that rouses ignoble passions, his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form."

- Aristotle

“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful.”

- Socrates

Thinking About Music• “After silence, that which comes closest to

expressing the inexpressible is music.” • Aldous Huxley

• “We get nearer to the Lord through music than perhaps through any other thing except prayer.” • President J. Reuben Clark, 1936

• “Music can act upon our senses to produce or induce feelings of reverence, humility, fervor, assurance, or other feelings attuned to the spirit of worship.” • President Spencer W. Kimball

Music’s Power• A force so powerful that it can influence our

hearts, our glands, and our muscles is a force to be reckoned with.

• The influence of music is significant enough that we should take care what kind of music we allow into our homes, cars, iPods, etc.

Music’s Power• Music also has great power on our emotions.

• Music has been called the universal language because it speaks directly to our emotions. And our emotions and feelings influence our actions.

Music’s Power• LDS composer Lex de Azevedo spoke about his

experience writing the musical score for the film Where the Red Fern Grows:• “While working on that project, I encountered a serious

problem: the entire story was built around a boy’s love for his dogs, but that love wasn’t being communicated through the film itself. I composed a tender love theme to fill that void, and suddenly flat images on strips of celluloid had emotional life. The audience wept.”

What’s the first adjective you think of to describe each piece?

Music’s Power• Music also has great effect on words. I like to use this

example of a popular poem from the early 1960s:You think you lost your love.Well, I saw her yesterday—It’s you she’s thinking of,And she told me what to say.She says she loves you,And you know that can’t be bad;Yes, she loves you,And you know you should be glad.Whoooo.She loves you,Yeah, yeah, yeah.She loves you,Yeah, yeah, yeah

Music and Lyrics• Usually, music gives a song its emotional power, while

lyrics tie that power to a concrete idea. Generally, lyrics appeal to the head, while music captures the heart.

• The lyrics of “She Loves You” are rather innocuous, but the situation becomes serious when questionable or immoral words are wedded to an appealing melody.

• Hard-to-remember words stick in the mind easily when combined with catchy, easy-to-remember melodies.

Music and Lyrics• Heavy Metal, Rap, and Country music have been

shown to have similar, violent, and immoral themes.

• Country tends to be seen as less harmful because the music lacks the intensity of metal and rap. Yet the message is the same.

Music and Lyrics• Music is the sugar coating that makes “bitter”

lyrics palatable.

• Even if the words are drug-oriented, erotic, violent, satanic, or just plain silly—when tied to a “hit” tune, they sneak past the screening mechanism of the brain to be stored in the subconscious, and to affect the listener accordingly.

You Are What You Listen To• Let’s revisit this quote from Aristotle

• "Music directly imitates the passions or states of the soul...when one listens to music that imitates a certain passion, he becomes imbued with the same passion; and if over a long time he habitually listens to music that rouses ignoble passions, his whole character will be shaped to an ignoble form."

For Good or for Evil • President Packer has counseled that music can be

a great force for good or evil.• “You cannot afford to fill your minds with the unworthy

music of our day. It is not harmless. It can welcome onto the stage of your mind unworthy thoughts and set a tempo to which they dance and to which you may act. You degrade yourself when you identify with those things that at times surround extremes in music. Such music is not worthy of you.

• “Be selective in what you listen to and produce. It becomes part of you. It controls your thoughts and influences the lives of others as well. There is so much wonderful, uplifting music available that we can experience to our advantage. [We] ought to be surrounded by good music of all kinds.”

• Elder Packer suggested that we “choose from among the sacred music of the Church one favorite hymn … one with lyrics that are uplifting and the music reverent. Select one that, when it is properly rendered, makes you feel something akin to inspiration.

• “Now, go over it in your mind very thoughtfully a few times. Memorize the words and the music. Even though you have had no musical training, even though you do not play an instrument, and even though your voice may leave something to be desired, you can think through a hymn. I suspect you already have a favorite. … You can only think of one thing at a time. Use this hymn as your emergency channel. Use this as the place for your thoughts to go. Anytime you find that … shady actors have slipped in from the sideline of your thinking onto the stage of your mind, think through this hymn. … Then you will begin to know something about controlling your thoughts.” This sacred music “will change the whole mood on the stage of your mind. Because it is clean and uplifting and reverent, the baser thoughts will leave.”

• In the preface of the LDS hymnal, the First Presidency wrote that “inspirational music is an essential part of our church meetings. The hymns invite the Spirit of the Lord, create a feeling of reverence, unify us as members, and provide a way for us to offer praises to the Lord.”

• MUSIC INVITES THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD• "Inspiring music may fill the soul with heavenly thoughts,

move one to righteous action, or speak peace to the soul." President Harold B. Lee

• What hymns invite the Spirit for you?

• MUSIC CREATES A FEELING OF REVERENCE• "I wonder sometimes if we realize the importance of

music. I wonder if we know that the Lord himself is concerned about it. He has given us the information that the song of praise is a prayer unto him. . . . It [is] our privilege, yea, our blessing, to sing and . . . our songs should be sung in righteousness." President George Albert Smith

• What hymns bring you into reverence?

• MUSIC UNIFIES US AS MEMBERS • "The singing of our sacred hymns, written by the servants

of God, has a powerful effect in converting people to the principles of the Gospel, and in promoting peace and spiritual growth." -- President Heber J. Grant

• What hymns create a sense of unity for you?

Alma 5• What is the “song of redeeming love?”

But more than anything else, sincere repentance requires change—changed thoughts, changed actions, changed relationships with God and man, changed patterns of behavior, changed attitudes, changed loyalties, changed priorities, changed motivations, changed lives. Alma referred to all of this changing simply as a “mighty change in your hearts” (Alma 5:14) which prompts all true believers to “sing the song of redeeming love” (Alma 5:26).

Of course, this change of heart isn’t a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Nor is it intended only for those who are guilty of major violations of God’s law. It can come every day of our lives as we prayerfully consider our commitment to the Lord and the sacred covenants we have made with him. In doing so, sometimes we’ll feel the need to repent and improve. Other times we’ll feel the confident peace of purity, which in this life only comes through repentance. Those are the times when we will feel most inclined to “sing the song of redeeming love.”

• Song can be prayer and prayer can be song and both will be answered.

• “To sing once is to pray twice” • St Augustine

• D&C 25:12

• “Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out.”  Oliver Wendell Holmes

• Tagore said “I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung.”

• • President Kimball then said “ Let us get our

instruments tightly strung and our melodies sweetly sung. Let us not die with our music still in us. Let us rather use this precious mortal probation to move confidently and gloriously upward toward eternal life which God our Father gives to those who keep his commandments”

Joseph L. Townsend• Oh What Songs of the Heart

• Hymn 286