We chose those pieces because they demonstrate how music that sounds very different can actually come from a common source, crossing  time and space and genres.  They are all built on one of the basic elements of music, the Pentatonic Scale.

We call it The Power of Five, since that’s what Pentatonic means.

Here is an entertaining explanation of the Pentatonic Scale.  If you’re in a real hurry, just watch the segment from minute 3 to minute 5.

Click here to view the embedded video.

We’ve talked about the Pentatonic Scale before.  Remember, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”?

We could give you many surprising examples of songs that share this common heritage.  How about “Ole Man River,” for instance?

It might take you a while to be able to recognize it whenever it shows up.  But even knowing there is such a thing as a Pentatonic Scale is valuable.  When you build your capacity to listen and to understand what you are hearing, you are exercising your whole brain in new ways.  You are having an Aha! experience.

We hope more and more of your listening can become Aha! moments that challenge and stretch as well as delight you, because we want you to stay healthy, happy and alert all through your life.

Want to send us your favorite music for the Pentatonic Hit Parade to add to this post?

“Music for Brain Fitness: An Innovative Inter-generational Approach”  from our Music is Brain Food  Recipe Box

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Do you recognize this  contemporary song?   Kids love it.  

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do you recognize this classic?  It seems to be from a completely different universe.  But is it?

Click here to view the embedded video.

And how about this beloved piece?  What a difference, huh?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Curious about their connection?  Hint:  It lies deep in our DNA.

Come join us in Washington, D.C. at 4 p.m. on March 28th in the Marriott Hotel, Room Maryland B, to find out what it is and how it contributes to brain health.

And come back here for our next post in April to learn the answer, if you can’t be there.

Most of us wince when we have to sing our national anthem because its wide range from low to high notes ( an octave plus a fifth) is beyond most of our abilities to sing comfortably.  Haven’t you often wondered if the celebrity singer at the ball game is going to be able to hit “the rocket’s red glare” without cracking (and mentally cursing Francis Scott Key)?

Well, you can’t blame him for the melody of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

He didn’t write it.  Only the words are his.

The melody was actually composed by John Stafford Smith, an Englishman, sometime in the 1770′s, for an elite London men’s club.

It was originally a drinking song called “To Anacreon in Heaven,” and it bawdily praised the pleasures of wine, women and song. It was so popular at the time that it spread to the lower classes in England and on to America, where many different lyrics were added for different purposes, including the political campaigns of George Washington and John Adams.

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Why was this melody so popular, given that it’s not easy for most people to sing?

Perhaps the expansive leaps of the music suggested the expansive possibilities of the American continent, and the words suggested a glorious future for a victorious new country–the right melody and the right words forming a perfect combination of felt meaning.

It’s not so surprising then that the melody would have easily come to the mind of Francis Scott Key, a Washington lawyer (who may have been tone deaf), when he saw the American flag still flying over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor after a bitter battle during the War of 1812 with England.

By the way, Francis Scott Key himself played only a minor role in the war and its aftermath. He was there in 1814 to negotiate the release of a friend who had been captured by the British during the bombardment of the city.

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You could say that this migration of a British tune, having quite a different origin than you would expect, is one of the great ironies of music history.  But it’s not so unusual.  In 1976, on a radio program celebrating the American bicentennial, Josh spoke about “Tunes, those promiscuous drifters, now mating with one set of lyrics, now another.”  There is something stirring in certain melodies that makes us want to sing them, even when they’re difficult.  And when the old melodies and new words are well- matched, the mating can turn into an enduring marriage

Here is Whitney Houston singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”  It seems a fitting requiem for an amazing singer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A final note:  ”The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially adopted as our national anthem only in 1931 during the Hoover administration!

The concept of happiness we’re interested in comes from scientific studies that are looking for the things that make life truly rich and satisfying.

We’re not bringing you “happy” music so much as music that can make you more aware, awake, and alive.  (Of course, some of that is also “happy” music!)  See our last post.

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So far research suggests that character strengths and activities which:

• stimulate positive emotions

• foster engagement in worthwhile activities alone and with others

• have a strong sense of purpose

• give us feelings of accomplishment

contribute the most to human well being.

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Music is an art that can do all three things.

• It can simply be a pleasurable experience (and that includes sad songs, by the way)

• It can be enjoyed with others or alone

• It can be an extremely meaningful experience

• It can challenge you to learn and grow, whether you perform music or listen to it

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You could say that if you enjoy music, it is one of the most natural and easiest ways for you to enjoy all the benefits of mind/body/spirit-enhancing activities in your daily life.

Our goal is to make you more aware of the amazing number of benefits music can bring you.

That’s why you can find us on the internet under a lot of names besides MUSIC AND HAPPINESS.

We’re also called:

• Music for Flourishing

• Music for Brain Fitness

• Music for Mind Fitness

• Music for Mindfulness

• Music for Resilience

• Music for Positive Aging

• Music for Mind Body Spirit Health

• Good Music Good Life

• We’re on Facebook as “Music and Happiness: Music for the Young at Heart”

We don’t think so.

Research in brain science is finding that listening to music stimulates the whole brain.

Research is also finding that people exercise more when they do it to music.

We’re interested in music as a bridge between generations too.

And in strengthening mental alertness through guided listening and learning about music.

And in music as a way of experiencing key character strengths right in your bones.

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Where do you start so that you can get the full benefit of music’s gifts to the human race?

•  Sign up to join us.  Go to the subscription box on any page of our site and just type in your email address and the name you’d like us to call you by.

• Go to this research site and find out what your character strengths are.  The questionnaires are free and you will be contributing to the research.

• Read our posts and tell us what you would like to know about music by filling out the comment box.   We value your requests!

Recognize the song?  It was written by Bobby McFerrin, one of the most gifted musicians of our time.

We recently read an article on one of our favorite sites, Daily Good, that  helpfully “unpacks” the lyrics to show how they reflect “neuroscience and psychology insights on happiness” based not on feel-good  ideas but on “studies that offered lab-tested validation for McFerrin’s intuitive insight.”  To read Maria Popova’s article, click here.

Her analysis stimulated us to add our own thoughts about this delightful anthem to well being. To get into the mood, watch Bobby McFerrin, with the comic geniuses Robin Williams and Bill Irwin, perform his song.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As Ms Popova points out, the lyrics are full of insights into true happiness.

But she omits other great riches in this song that give it even more neuroscientific and psychological value.

What really makes it so powerful is precisely that it is music. Let’s look at the perfect marriage McFerrin has created between the lyrics and the melody.  In fact, unpacking the music as well as the words will help us really appreciate how McFerrin’s “true musician” brings “light into people’s hearts.”

Start by listening to the tune itself.  It is remarkable for its utter simplicity. It is built on only 5 notes–like the 5 fingers on each of our hands.  This is known to musicians as a Pentatonic (for 5) Scale.

This is something anybody can hear by playing the 5 black keys on a piano. Try it yourself  by clicking on our virtual keyboard and tapping on only the black keys.

Simply put, the Pentatonic Scale is a basic building block of music around the world, linking what might seem to be very different songs, eras and cultures through a common music pattern.

Here are some familiar tunes using the Pentatonic Scale: Stephen Foster’s “Oh Susanna,”  the hymn “Amazing Grace,” the folk song “Barbara Allen,” jazz’s “A Tisket A Tasket,” the opening phrase of Gershwin’s “I’ve Got Rhythm,” and the opening of Jerome Kern’s “Ol’ Man River.”  This scale appears in many cultures, including the music of  West Africans, ancient Greeks, Asians, Native Americans, and Celts.

Their songs built on the Pentatonic Scale all share the same musical DNA as “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”!

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So what?

Well, the music is a major reason why the song stays with us.  ”Don’t Worry, Be Happy” may sound simple, even simplistic. But it really isn’t.  Its vibrations are ancient and universal. We respond to them with our whole brain, resonating unconsciously to a deep structure that beautifully supports the psychological complexity of the lyrics.  

Try listening again, with new ears, to savor Bobby McFerrin’s creation in its totality.

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To jump further into the world of the fascinating Pentatonic Scale, watch Bobby McFerrin demonstrate it at  the 2009 World Science Festival:

Click here to view the embedded video.

We live just north of New York City.  Lynne was driving to her office in the City that morning when she was stopped in upper Manhattan by a policeman who told her, “Somebody tried to blow up the World Trade Center again, so you’d better go home before all the bridges are closed.”  At that early time nobody realized something more unthinkable had happened. Her first thought was of a client who worked at the Center.  Fortunately, that person was at a meeting elsewhere in the City.  But so many others were not as fortunate.

When we heard that the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, under Alan Gilbert, chose Mahler’s 2nd (“Resurrection”) Symphony to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the terrible destruction wrought on September 11th, 2001, we also decided to offer you the “Resurrection” Symphony as our small contribution to the healing of us all.

Mahler’s Symphony No.2 is in 5 movements, written for large orchestra, chorus, and soprano and alto soloists.  This particular music is especially appropriate for such a solemn occasion, we think, because of  the powerful revelations it offers.  It expresses Mahler’s own titanic struggles with the meaning of life in the face of death’s reality.

As you listen to the performance we have chosen–perhaps one of the most transcendent performances of a transcendent work–here are some thoughts to guide your listening.

In his own comments on this symphony, Mahler pondered some of the profound questions he explores in the first movement: Why do we live, why do we suffer? Is it all nothing but a terrible joke?

We must answer these questions, he says, if we are going to be able to continue living.

The first movement presents a contrast between the overwhelming presence of Death–heard in the bleak sounds of a Funeral March–and occasional glimmers of hope in music that prefigures the Resurrection theme of the finale.  This movement ends with a dark plunging, triplet line in the basses as Death reasserts its dominion.

Leonard Bernstein was one of the greatest interpreters and most ardent champions of Mahler.  We encourage you to read some of the listeners’ comments…and perhaps add your own…as you watch this video of his superb performance.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the second movement of the symphony, the music is meant to suggest nostalgic memories of earlier, happier times with the dead, Mahler tells us– a looking to the past.

In the third movement, the scherzo, St. Anthony of Padua preaches to the fishes, who continue their aimless swimming to and fro the moment he stops.  Mahler tells us that here he tried to convey the disgusting ease with which we return to old ways after a crisis, falling back into the confusion and seeming senselessness of everyday life.

In the fourth movement (“Das Urlicht” or “Primal Light”) the tentative sounds of hope heard in the first movement return at last.  Here Mahler begins to find the meaning he was seeking when he asked:  Is life only a terrible joke? No, the contralto sings. Although mankind lies in deepest need and greatest woe, her comforting closing words are:

“The dear Lord will lend me a little light.

He will light my way to eternal, blissful life.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the glorious finale, introduced by the stirring words of the chorus—“Thou shalt rise again, yes again….” the singers speak for and to us:

“Believe, my heart…

O believe: thou wast not born in vain!

Thou hast not lived and suffered in vain! …

With wings I have won for myself,

I shall soar in fervent love aloft

To the Light no eye has yet beheld!

I shall die to live again!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Could you feel your own spirit soar with the music?

In the end, is it Religion or Art that gives meaning to the tragedies of life? Can one be separated from the other here?

A few words about Gustav Mahler:

Mahler composed between the twilight years of the great Austro-German symphonic tradition and the beginning of the modern era.  His was a soul riven by multiple conflicts. In his words: “I am thrice homeless—as a Bohemian born in Austria, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world.”

He was also one of the outstanding conductors of his day. He held major positions at the Vienna Court Opera, with the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and the Metropolitan Opera, among others. Yet, he felt that what he achieved in artistic excellence on the podium came at a heavy price because it took him away from composing.

Added to the mix is the tension between his work as the big orchestral writer (as in the first and fifth movements of the “Resurrection” Symphony) and the one who reduces his sound to the most intimate level of chamber music (as  in the “Primal Light” movement).

Finally, there is the frequent pull he felt between writing in a simple folk song style and being the architect of vast symphonic structures which require large orchestral forces that approximate what Wagner called for in his Ring of the Nibelung.

We are also commemorating the centennial of Mahler’s death in 2011 (1860-1911).

We are proud to announce that we and our site are featured in the very first issue of YouBeauty.com, in an article called “Your Mind on Music.”

Click on this link to read Josh’s cogent remarks first.  Please let us know your reactions and please share the news. This is a wonderful site.

Music is essential to our nature as social animals, our need to bond with others. It can take many forms–a mother cooing to her baby, work songs on chain gangs, protest marches, marching bands, people singing in a chorus…we’re sure you can think of many more examples.  Take a look at  our posts on the relationship between music and memory here.

We now know from  leading neuroscientists who write about music that “happiness” hormones like oxytocin can be released as a result of musical bonding.  Daniel Levitin explains how this probably occurs, in his book The World in Six Songs (2008).

Nowadays, in the age of the  Internet, the ability to create bonding through music has reached world-wide proportions. This was brought home to us recently when we learned about Eric Whitacre’s remarkable 2000+ member Virtual Choir, made up of singers from 58 countries.

As a teenager who played the synthesizer and the drum machine even though he did not read music, Whitacre had dreams of becoming a pop star. But his life goal changed radically at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, after he grudgingly attended a choir rehearsal of Mozart’s  Requiem. In his own words his world, which had been black and white, suddenly it burst into color as he heard the Kyrie.

In gratitude for this transformational experience,  he ultimately  wrote a choral piece in honor of  the choir director who had so changed his life and who set him on the career  path to becoming a  choral conductor and composer.

In the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talk below, Whitacre movingly describes the evolution of the virtual choir, which had its beginnings in a simple YouTube fan video made by a girl singing the soprano line from his choral composition called “Sleep.”   He was deeply moved by her performance and suddenly had a vision. Why not post all the vocal parts of this piece on the web and make a video of himself conducting the music for people to sing along?  Let him tell the rest of the story…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here are some lines from the poem “Sleep,” on which Whitacre based his piece.   You may hear echoes of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening.”  We do.

The evening hangs beneath the moon

A silver thread on darkened dune

With closing eyes and resting head

I know that sleep is coming soon

.            .            .           .

As I surrender unto sleep

As I surrender unto sleep.

And finally, if you would like to hear the full April 2011 global virtual performance of “Sleep,” here it is.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you might like to join a virtual choir, Eric Whitacre has posted videos on YouTube giving more information about the way the process works.

It seems to us that this is an extremely valuable, creative, truly new use of technology that actually increases human well being.

What do you think?

Or who would like to know more about it than you do now.

Let’s start off by having some fun. Have you seen a Virtual Keyboard?

Even if you have never played an instrument, you can experience making music yourself with this wonderful invention (click here).

Time for a confession from Lynne:

Josh plays the violin as if it’s an extension of his body and soul.

I play the piano…badly.

Josh can quickly identify almost any piece of music and can usually name the conductor and performer after listening to a few bars of it.

I have a terrible memory for instrumental music, especially when it’s “classical.”

For years we have played a car game sort of like Twenty Questions.  As we drive along and are listening to music–especially classical instrumental music–on the radio, he will ask if I want to guess who wrote it.

I’m happy to tell you that I’m getting a little better at guessing the right century and sometimes even the right country of origin.  If I’m feeling really daring, I may even try for the first initial of the composer’s name.

Now, if you want lyrics to every song in the American Songbook, I’m your gal. And songs from my parents’ generation? I can sing the verses and choruses of songs most people have never heard of, the result of spending a lot of my childhood on long car trips.

The point of my confession is this:

You don’t need to be a musical savant to be part of our tribe. You just have to be interested enough in music to read our posts.  We want you to feel very comfortable responding with your own comments and asking questions.  That’s how we all learn and grow.

Here are some good reasons for sticking with us.

Music listening, playing, and study stimulate all sorts of cognitive processes.

When you listen to unfamiliar music you are challenging yourself to swim in a sea of novel patterns and sounds.  This nourishes brain growth just the way adapting to any new environment does.  Facing the unknown becomes even more valuable when you are guided to understand how to listen and make sense of what you’re hearing.  Then you get an Aha! experience as a bonus.

Familiar music is challenging as well, when you learn how to recognize its musical structure and unique genius.  It’s like swimming in warm Caribbean waters, diving below the surface where you usually stay, deep down to where unexpected, hidden beauties lie. Another powerful Aha! experience.

Our job is to give you insights that pique your curiosity and sense of wonder so that your dives are exciting–and easier than they would be without our guidance.

As Josh and I continue to explore the wide world of music that we feel represents humanity at its best, I hope you will be our companions in discovering music that

• moves you strongly, not necessarily always in a positive way (!)
• provokes your thinking
• arouses your desire to listen and learn more
• puts you in touch with that mysterious spirit residing in each of us that resonates to the greatest forms of human expression and experience…

Even if–like me–you still can’t, for the life of you, name that tune.

But Hawaii is also offering something even more newsworthy, in larger numbers than ever before–an instrument through which almost anyone can find musical expression, enriching their own lives as well as those around them. Such are the unexpected benefits of playing the ukulele.

The association of the ukulele with Hawaii is far from new. In fact, it is a descendant of a four-stringed instrument brought to Hawaii in the late 1870′s from Portugal.  It has gone through several waves of popularity since then. Remember Tiny Tim?

But there is nothing that quite compares to the current ukulele craze. It all began in 1999, when Israel Kamakawiwo’ole ‘s ukulele version of “Over the Rainbow” was used in a commercial for eToys. That recording has been licensed over 100 times since, to sell everything from paint to lottery tickets to food, software, and banking services.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A number of major pop artists and indie rock groups have fed this craze. They include Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, who is about to release a new solo album, “Ukulele Songs.” Here is his “Longing to Belong.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

And don’t forget Paul McCartney’s tribute to George Harrison at the 2002 “Concert for George.” Four years later Jake Shimabukuro’s rendition of  Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” went viral on YouTube.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Most importantly, as singerAmanda Palmer, formerly of  the punk cabaret group, Dresden Dolls, puts it, the ukulele is the ideal instrument for the D.I.Y. age. It represents everything that “the grand polished machine of the music industry is not. … This is the age of democratization in music. Anyone can be a musician. And in a recession, when you have a $20 instrument and there is a big musical renaissance, anyone will want to join in.”

Local strumming groups are springing up all over the place because no special  training is required to join. Ukulele strumming goes so well with untrained vocal styles.  We were charmed recently by a photo of two middle-aged women learning to play the ukulele together.  They looked so excited and pleased with themselves. It brought home clearly the inner rewards that people get from making music for fun, whether you sing alone in the shower or join a ukulele orchestra.

There is a lively magazine focused on making music for fun, called, fittingly, Making Music: Better Living Through Recreational Music Making (full disclosure: the lovely editor, Antoinette Follett, is a relative of ours).  Click on the link for more information on the ukelele. The whole magazine is well worth checking out.