Bremen to Karlsruhe

It was in October 2015, I was traveling from Bremen to Karlsruhe via Hanover. Though I bought a first class ticket assuming that it would give me an opportunity to use internet during the travel, somehow, I could not get access to the same. Although there were three occupants in the compartment, the journey seemed to be quite monotonous. All the three occupants were silent and even not seeing the faces. Yes, I was odd man out due to the skin colour as well as the language (I can manage with Deutsch in Germany but not enough). Anyways, as usual with my nature I could not restrain myself from starting a conversation with an old lady who was traveling to Frankfurt. This conversation was very thought-provoking as we discussed the cultural differences as well as philosophical bent of the two countries i.e. India and Deutschland.

As the lady got down in Frankfurt, the ambience in the compartment again became monotonous. But this did not stop me going back again to my natural instinct of starting a conversation with strangers. This time he was none other than a prolific musician who enjoyed paying keyboards in various concerts, orchestra and opera houses in Berlin. He was originally from Giessen in Sued Deutschland but used to live in Berlin. His parents still lived in Giessen.

After some introductory exchanges of words and ideas regarding the profession, hometown and interests, we started esoteric conversation related to the effect of music on wellbeing of human as well as trees, plants and animals, the effect of various frequencies on the mind and body. How does music affect our emotions and is there a universally accepted music stream that is liked by all human being irrespective of their cultural and childhood experiences? Such questions came up because these unsatisfied queries have remained in my psyche for a very long time i.e. since my 20s. I just wanted to share his views on these questions, for which I write this piece.

He placed his opinion as follows: “Our brain attunes itself with our experiences and the musical tones, pitches and other compositions, varying from land to land and making our mind and preparing us to relate to those in our later stages of life. Therefore, relating ourselves with a given type of music composition fully depends on our cultural background, and we can be emotionally activated by the tunes that we are grown up with".

Interesting and remarkable view that led me to further my studies in this aspect of the musical effects.