The Cerebral Symphony

At the Symphony there are some violin musicians who go to the hospitals to soothe the psyches of damaged children. The music gives them a sense of well-being, the opposite of Teresa Patterson's playing at the Magazine Club did. Zach once wanted to take lessons. Is this the stuff we hear that dreams are made of? The chimpanzees responded in like manner as the hospitalized children. There is biological evolution which seldom progressed to a pure clone. If it had gotten to that point, I know one whom I won't name as two readers object vociferously to constant tidbits about him. Mark is learning to play musical instruments to be in a band someday. Song is the noblest, most intimate, most complete manner of self-expression known to manking. We all have music in us in varying and different ways. Sometimes, however, song becomes only a source of forgetfulness of material things and a solace, but also an inspiration. The Gregorian chants of the medieval Catholic Church celebrate the ancient ritual of music in concert, especially when the acoustics are excellent. Chords are simultaneous notes just as phonemes are; tunes are chains of chords just as words and sentences are chains of such. Brad McCuen gave away sixty years of music to MTSU in 1997 -- 30,000 record collections are said to be valued at more than $300,000. The University paid a pittance of only $50,000 to defray the moving and charting. The mental attitudes controling cooperation, conflict resolution and family size (all likely to be strongly shared with our primate cousins) would rank high. William Calvin is the author of The River That Flows Uphill.