In the last two days: recording many of my poems and dubbing my old cassettes of poetry readings and band performances onto computer files and CDs. As well as receiving an e-mail video of different kinds of animals responding to different kinds of music.
The power of the human voice: something that is instantly missed by others, for example, when someone dies. Not only is the human voice the sound signature of a given individual, but it is something that communicates and pleasures depending on the various qualities of voice.
As a poet and teacher, I have seen and experienced others profoundly affected by readings, talks, and discussions. I have communicated thoughts and feelings via the spoken word and human voice that others have responded, too; an affect I have long observed in my own experience as a listener when I have listened to the likes of Richard Burton, Martin Luther King, Ingrid Bergman, and many others. Suffice to say, certain voices have a very persuasive, pleasurable, even seductive air about them.
I have, likewise, played music for thousands (recalling how crowds sang along, moved, or danced in response) and remember well how music first affected me as much as (if not moreso) than the spoken voice. My mother used to plunk me down by a cathedral radio in the 1950s as an aural babysitter. Later I, like millions of other Western teenagers would raptly and rapturously listen to top 40 AM radio for the hits of the day through the ’60s and ’70s.
Later, I would attend several hundred concerts by professional musicians, listening to a range of genres from Indian to jazz to folk to rock to classical; the unmistakable power and influence of multi-genres of music. Certain songs or pieces made/make me feel a certain way and stimulate inner spirit, as well as mental imagery. Both spoken word voice and music (including sung lyrics) affect and influence people of all races; music, though, is a universal language per se, transcending nations and geographical or cultural separation.
Am I surprised that animals (as in the aforementioned video) would respond in automatic, sensitive ways to music (much as dogs or horses respond to spoken word commands)? No. Animals and birds often demonstrate or exhibit similar features to humans. Why should their aural senses not respond to music? The insects landing on Paul McCartney singing in the video were obviously also drawn to the light, but who knows? Sensate creatures or beings are sensate in mysterious ways. Re. the landmark 1970s book on plants, The Secret Life of Plants–when I read it long ago, I was not too skeptical about the research that plants also responded to music such as rock and classical.
Music is a major powerful force, and it can be felt deeply as all humans know. That it does affect other life on the planet should not be any great surprise. An untapped resource and potentially useful application, unquestionably.