Musical Hypnosis

I have sung in many choirs over the past few years and have enjoyed blending my voice with others. An inevitable consequence of rehearsing with the choir, however, is that my mind (and my vocal chords) cannot seem to let go of the melodies we sing. This is certainly not strange, because the entire purpose of rehearsal is so that we do not need to sing a song as if it were our first time singing it during the performance.

Most likely because I am a music nerd, I am unable to forget songs and whatever we sang in choir haunts me all week. Perhaps this is merely because of my memory, or perhaps because the tune is catchy. When these two factors (the memory and the catchy tune) converge, woe is me, for my entire mind is put into a strangle-hold so that I cannot hardly use my mind for anything but to play the song back over and over again in my mind. (I find some relief from that urge right now as I write this, but I also needed previously to sit down at the piano for a few minutes after which I have a different melody prevailing in my mind and the choir song for next week is forgotten at present.)

I wonder if there is an aspect of certain music which causes us to be "infected" with "ear-worms." I certainly have never had an urge to hum Schoenberg or even to try to hum some of Bach's fugues. I'm sure I'd attempt the latter if I had two mouths, but I have only one, which makes only one sound at a time. (I could always try to perfect the skill of whistling and humming two different notes, but until then I will have to satisfy myself with one measly melody.) It is no difficulty for most people to recall some of the more famous tunes, such as Beethoven's 5th Symphony or Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Other classical pieces which are just as grand haven't the memorable melody and aren't as easily remembered.

I believe that the primary reason for a piece to be remembered over another is repetition. If I were to hum the words to "This is the song that never ends," you would probably nearly strangle me, because it would repeat through your mind for hours. I remember going on a ride at Disneyworld (it was really the dumbest ride there, but hey! the line was short!) called "It's a small world." I don't remember much about the ride itself except that the melody penetrated and even debilitated my mind for the next days.

So now you ask: "What's your point?" Repetition could be a good thing, because it could serve as an aid to memory. Every teacher knows this fact. There comes a point, however, where repetition goes beyond affecting the memory and enters into the subconscience. (I am not in any way trying to say something along the lines of "if you play the Beetles' music backwards, it will make your brain do funny things." I am also not saying that the message which enters the sub conscience cannot be visible to the discerning eye. The message is usually quite apparent.)

So I wonder if there isn't an aspect of some music to be avoided in which the music is so repetitive that it starts to turn the mind off rather than encourage its use. Regardless, one need not look very far in contemporary music (conservative and CCM alike) to find songs which have short, catchy phrases which are repeated indefinitely. What happened to introducing an idea and developing it throughout the song?

Thank you for allowing me to vent my frustrations. Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy has captured my mind and hopefully Handel's Messiah will recapture my mind and carry it to Theological refreshment.