About one month ago, Out-ER run our first workshop on the relationship between music and empathy. In honor to Out-ER 12th’s release, Simone Gatto – Holzwege EP (Legowelt remix), Simone Gatto himself introduced philosophical theories about sounds and sensations: how an artist approaches a live performance and how it could be interpreted by the audience, which sensations can be spread between performer and audience, how the audience’ feelings can influence the artist and vice versa.
After introducing the theoretical themes – where we based our experiment – Simone did a live performance to verify if the theoretical themes correspond to real / practical performances. The performance went on six minutes, and after it, the staff asked the participants to fill a questionnaire applied by San Raffaele Hospital during a scientific research (results below).
Here follows the fundamentals where our experiment is based, the theories of two philosophers, that are Emile Jacques Dalcroze and Resseguier, plus the mirror neurons’ mode of operation.
Emile Jacques Dalcroze
Today, people are and act in a voiced soundscape characterized by an electrification and digitization increasingly accentuated. In our pockets, in our computers, in the environment we live or work in, it’s very likely the constant presence of a sequence of sounds more or less annoying or pleasant: not traditional, but electronic sounds. The musical expression has always been part of human communication, crossing sound modes socially and culturally shared. The new scientific researches assert the musical product speaks not only of an era where it was created, but represents an important point of convergence in human and social relationships. A growing attention is dedicated to the ability of music to evoke affective and sensory-motor resonances both into listeners and into performers. Making and listening to music are two different experiences that actually are more similar than expected. Predecessor of this way of approaching sounds was the swiss musician Emile Jacques – Dalcroze around the late nineteenth century. The movement ‘is’ music, music ‘is’ movement. Mainly applied to music education, he has greatly influenced disciplines as dance, theater, pedagogy and music therapy. For Dalcroze, the primary element of music is rhythm: both languages – motoric and voiced – are interdependent. Rhythm is seen not as arid succession of times, but as a flow of movement in time and space with its dynamic characteristics, tensions, breaths and silences. Into and around us, there is a continuous succession, interweaving, overlapping of various types rhythms: natural, environmental, mechanical, regular, irregular, short, long … We can say rhythm is the foundation of every manifestation of life, of science and art. For Jaques Dalcroze ‘rhythm, as well as the dynamics, depends entirely on movement and finds its most complete model in our muscular system. Through the body, we can realize all the gradations of time (happy, quick, speeding up, slowing down etc.). The intensity of our musical sense depends on the intensity of our bodily sensations.
Mirror neurons and activated areas in our brain
An Italian study has recently allowed us to extend our knowledge about the functioning of the brain. The research, in fact, has revealed the presence of an empathetic relationship between the musicians engaged in a concert highlighting how, during the performance, they tend to get in empathic communication in an attempt to read emotions and moods. The interesting scientific discovery, in particular, was published in two magazines, Cortex and NeuroImage, and was carried out by researchers from the IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana and those of the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan. The study carried out showed that, in fact, a musical concert is the result not only of the competence of the musicians, but also the harmonization of their brains obtained through the activation of certain brain areas natural site at the frontal region and related system of “mirror neurons”. The research that has enabled it to achieve this result, moreover, was carried out on a group of musicians engaged in a concert: thanks to the latest generation of instruments, in particular, the researchers were able to simultaneously record the brain activity of musicians. By analyzing the data obtained, scholars have noted that in some musicians during the concert, it results in the activation of previous brain areas, a sign of increased activity empathetic. The results, as shown in the news released by the San Raffaele, then seem to put emphasis on the presence of a relationship between the activity of playing in concert and empathic communication of emotions and moods.
Ressèguier Method
Our will is not enough to allow a change of state in terms of awareness, there can be several reasons to invalidate the intention as if the reason escapes from attempts optimization. In this sense the Ressèguier Method highlights the body, which must be capable of taking in all the sensory stimuli that pass through it. It’s not something that comes from the outside, on the contrary a revitalization that is activated from inside. These sensory stimuli must be perfectly integrated in the subject that will manifest a physical vitality and postural attitude without any need thoughts to be part of this process to keep that thought in time.
Questionnaire
We applied the questionnaire to a 24 people group (music enthusiasts, producers and journalists) in italian and the results correspond to theory. Here we translate the questions and the results:
1 – How can you define Simone Gatto’s performance?
2 – Were the sounds’ connection and layer precise?
3 – How could you define Simone’s approach with tools during the execution of his live performance?
4 – Can you describe Simone’s posture?
5 – Have you ever thought the performer was evaluating himself (positively or negatively) during the live performance?
6 – If you noticed self-evaluating behaviors, did you perceive any particular changes in the execution of the performance?
7 – How did you judge Simone’s face? Were there any tense moment revealed by his expression or other motoric elements?
8 – Which sensations did Simone’s performance evoke in you?
All the participants perceived the message of the performance Simone made, everyone used different words but the meaning is identical (harmony, delight, peace, mellow journey, deepness). Talking about Simone Gatto’s approach with instruments, everyone understood it is relaxed; Simone’s posture has been unanimously defined bent, soft, in symbiosis with sounds and the mixing the track transmitted. At the same time, everyone felt the sounds’ entry was not that precise, while a pathos and tense sensation invaded everyone (thanks to noises and pads without beats). The most interesting consideration of the experiment is everyone, at one point, felt disoriented and frustrated when, during the live performance, a problem to audio occurred.
The participants noticed those sensations as everyone was deeply into the performance (after a long theoretical introduction) and looking at Simone’s expression and behavior – through the mirror neurons, the participants empathize with Simone’s happenings, and it was exactly what he was feeling. It scientifically proves a performer can transmit all his sensations to people, through music and gestures.