Music and Memory (assignment 2)

  Greetings and salutations fellow music connoisseurs, today the topic of discussion I will be working through is that of music and memory. Now for those of you who are not acquainted with my style of going about the task of explaining various phenomena, I tend to overcomplicate the sum total of my musings on any given topic to an almost vexing degree. But for your sake (and for time's as well) I will try to consolidate my words and thoughts to an acceptable extension. So with without further ado we shall now move along to the reason why we are actually here. In everyday experience we ascertain that there are two distinct sides that music falls into in its regard to that faculty we call memory, either it helps us remember something we desire to associate it with, oftentimes with the use of words ( what I will call intentional memorization) or it occasionally unconsciously slips its way into association with something extramusical through some means of repetition or unique experience in which the music occurs and brings to mind a memory to which it is tied when experienced again. (I will call this unintentional association). I shall look at these two points one at a time and offer my (markedly non-expert at least in the field of neuroscience) opinions respectively. 

Intentional Memorization:

I would venture to say that I am the king (at least in this conglomeration of individuals) of what I refer to as intentional memorization for a few reasons but first let me explain why I believe this experience occurs at all. For (most probably) as long as there have been people and songs they have been used as a tool to aid in remembering things that otherwise would be fractions away from impossible in that regard. I am not a psychologist but I venture to say that this is likely due to the peculiar human trait of memory through patterns and chunking, as will be explained momentarily. It seems when something is sharply condensed into a logical pattern such as music we tend to have a greater chance of remembering all sort of things. This phenomenon is what the experts refer to as chunking. This particular oddity is why scales are so helpful for musicing (dividing the music into logical patterns for quick recital) and why remembering a phone number in the sets of three, three and four digits is easier than recalling all ten in one go. At this point you are most assuredly saying to your curious self, ok, lets go back to that "king of intentional memorization thing", what the heckelphone is up with that? Well I'm glad you asked, its anecdote time! Back in the days of what for a non-homeschooler would be elementary and middle school my education was greatly based around the power of memorization through music. My homeschool co-op's (kind of like school but only one day a week and with regular Socratic dialogue) curriculum had all the students memorize all manner of assorted topics, parts of the sun, multiplication tables, historical facts, the capitals of every country, Latin vocab (bleh), etc. ad. infinitum. The task normally would seem daunting but saving grace was that there was a song to go with each and every "peg" of information presented, making the process of remembering not only easy but really fun. The highlight of the entire enterprise was the infamous timeline song, a 150ish point long list of chronological historical events either that would be studied later (the hyperspecific things) or weighty points in history that Dr Woodfin would get excited about. I have embedded this 13 minute pinnacle (to my 8 year old brain at least) of classical Christian homeschool education, and more importantly to this post, demonstration of the power of intentional memory for your personal enjoyment. 

No more need to wonder why I am such a nerd now,

            Ok on we tumble to the realm of unintentional association.

This aspect of the relationship between memory and music is somewhat more esoteric as it seems to vary between person to person, at least from my non-psychologist point of view. I think most all of us however have had the sensation of a particular song, classical work, sound effect, noise, raucous, etc, bring back a very specific feeling or memory, even though we did not consciously work to build the association. The curious bit however comes in when one observes that while the majority of times the relationships make generally a lot of sense, once in a while a correlation defies expectation. In consequence of this I will now get even more Aristotelian (though I am normally a Platonist) and divide this into the two groups as I mentioned before, namely expected unintentional association and unexpected unintentional association. 

In order to observe expected unintentional association in its natural habitat so to speak in my experience it seems that scores for cinematic works and video games are plausibly the best to accomplish this worthy aspiration. In all likelihood this happens because it was exactly the purpose the music was conceived to accomplish. Easy example: if you hear the Star Wars fanfare you are, by this point, essentially programed to see random yellow letters careening through space.  Below I am attaching an example of a piece of music from a video game I played back in my golden years of elementary school. To show that I am not talking in vain, I heard this piece again when I was in high school and it brought back a litany of memories. I received the game on Christmas one year so the faculty of imagination does not have to be proverbially stretched to perceive why the game had fond memories intimately associated with it. You can listen for yourself momentarily but first because I adore theory I can't not give a super brief explanation on why this piece is such a bop.

The melodic construction of all three sections (the form is AA'BC repeat), particularly A and C is impeccable. The generally repetitive and symmetric layout of the 4 and 8 bar phrases is interlaced with slight variations that both pique are interest but also keep us engaged with what is going on. One does not have to look far to see this type of melody in virtually all styles of music. This selection, in my opinion, nails the melody masterfully, which combined with its upbeat groove, interesting harmonies and lovely orchestration, lead to a real earworm. If you want to learn more about this specific track, this video goes super in-depth.

I know you are all tried of hearing me run my mouth on so I'll strive for a minute last section.

My experience with unexpected unintentional association is somewhat more limited but I can conjure up at least one last example so come along with me through a wacky series of events. Back in the summer of 2024 at the MasterWorks festival (then located in the middle of Kentucky) I was participating in the composition program which included preforming some of the other composer's works. And well....one of the pieces was really very good, but hard....really hard. Like any sensible musician would do, my friend/roommate Sam and I made a kind of made a joke about the whole thing (like all woodwinds do with Daphnis and Chloe). So in this spirit I set my alarm clock to ring as the midi file of this new piece, scherzo dynamique, as a result of Sam missing orchestra rehearsal because he slept past his alarm. The result was a terrifying yet thoroughly competent jolt from sleep complete with vivid hallucinations of double sharps. I stumbled, just a few days ago, upon a video of me playing through this chaotic but intriguing piece of mixed chamber ensemble scoring and it instantly took me back, not too the rehearsals or practice of the piece, but to jolting awake in room 124a every morning that summer, an oddly nostalgic recollection. So without further ado here is Matthew Hodge's Scherzo Dynamique.

I should say that my friend Matthew, the composer of this, is really an up and coming musical genius, if you want a rabbit hole to lurk down you should check out some of his music here.

So there you have it folks, my ramblings on the relationship between music and memory. We have seen how music can be both a powerful memorization device, allowing us to remember things we never thought possible and linking pieces to specific people, places and things which as a closing thought, may very well may be why music can be so emotional. Thanks for reading and see you next time!