It’s Biology, People!

From faculty member Alison Turner:

I was listening to NPR the other morning and there was an audiologist on who was explaining why humans have visceral reactions to sound and why some sounds are innately soothing and lovely and why some are grating and unpleasant. They figured out that sound waves are transmitted to the brain in beat-like patterns that are either consistent or irregular and they even had a recording of what the waves sound like as they enter the brain. When the listener would hear a chord that was a perfect 5th, the brain waves were consistent and evenly timed. When they would hear a chord that was not symmetrical, like a minor 2nd, the pattern that was transmitted was inconsistent and choppy. There was a ballet in 1913 called “The Rite of Spring” composed by Igor Stravinsky that actually caused a riot at it’s premiere because the dissonant and asymmetrical chords and rhythms were so unsettling to the audience it provoked anger and violence.

I think I found this interview so fascinating because it made me think of comedic patterns and timing that are just inexplicably right or wrong. Every month in intensive we spend so much time studying the text and identifying 3’s and reversals and builds and all the good stuff that, if executed correctly, make us laugh. But I don’t even think the Kahn herself can explain why. I cannot count how times I have seen “Jack! Jack?” done, but when someone hits a solid, clean reversal, I chuckle every time. Why? I KNOW what’s coming! I KNOW exactly what you are about to say!

Occasionally we get some feisty ones that will say “Casting directors don’t know about 3’s and reversals and they aren’t going to not book me because I didn’t hit the technicals!” Perhaps they don’t know what to call it, but they know when something is amiss. If I played a C chord and added a note that didn’t belong, even someone who knows nothing about musical theory would cringe and know it was wrong. It’s biology, people! You can’t argue with biology. You really can’t argue with Lesly either, so why bother trying?