DeNora Ch 5
Victoria Neil
CP III
Blog entry
Ch. 5- Music as a device of social ordering
‘Pools of order’, writes John Law, ‘are illusory.’ Thus the human mind, and therefore human action, can be in large part influenced by extraneous forces around them. These can include the people they see, who they talk to, the tone in which they are addressed and what is said, as well as the location. Decorations, the presence or absence of nature, and familiarity are all items that can affect an individual. If the setting is familiar, say a living room, there might be the usual pictures framed on the walls, a couple couches, and perhaps some other decorations. I was once at a traveling art show where dozens of artists had their work up for sale. I was impressed by one particular display where there were several large canvases that had brilliant colors streaming around the outline of a strong wild horse. The artist wondered if I was interested and urged me to buy a painting. My reply was that his work was beautiful and I loved it, but where would I put it? It was not my style. His response has stayed with me: after looking puzzled at my statement, he asked “Why does that matter? Would you change the music you are listening to to match the room? Would you change the pictures on the walls to make the genre of music you were listening to? Of course not.”
But that is just it. You cannot constantly change the decorations of your room to fit your mood. You cannot hope that people will just read your mind and immediately know whether you want to jump around or take it slow. There are many constants in our lives. One of the things we can easily change is the music we set our lives to. DeNora describes one of these instances in a dorm setting: “Confined to one room with only basic furnishings, some candles, posters and the like, music is one of the few available materials for altering and specifying the scenes in which encounters occur.” One simple song change can make all the difference. Tied up in the music you choose is expectations, how you expect the visit to go, and can act as a guide to how your guest should act. In this way, a person can easily decipher whether the music is for dancing or relaxing. But they would not be aware that they were doing so- because music affects us subconsciously. DeNora describes music as a “non-verbal, aesthetic means for pre-scripting scenes, for instigating scenarios and associated desires and conduct forms.”
It is so interesting that music can affect people this way. It not only has an affect on one’s mood, but can also dictate actions. But this is not a new idea. In ancient Greece, many philosophers including Plato and Aristotle. In Music in the Western Hemisphere by Craig Wright and Bryan Simms we find the following quotation: “Who is unaware that Pythagoras, by means of a spondaic melody, calmed and restored to self-control a youth of the city Taormina who had become intoxicated by the sound of the Phrygian mode? For one night a prostitute was shut up in the house of the youth’s rival, and he in his frenzy was about to set fire to it. Meanwhile Pythagoras, who was observing the motion of the stars, as was his custom, learned that the youth, agitated by the sound of the Phrygian mode and deaf to the many pleas of his friends, refused to desist from his crime. Pythagoras ordered that the mode be changed, and thus reduced the youth’s fury to a state of perfect calm.” When I first read the quotation, I admit that I was slightly baffled and thought it was a little silly. But that is the central argument of DeNora’s entire article: Music has the power to manipulate people and situations. And so it does.
