Why do major musical chords resonate with humans? This was another one of those great loaded questions that Professor O’Malley posed to us in class. I completely understand the feeling of the chord resonating, especially when it’s “coming home” in a piece of music. But I hadn’t really asked myself why it was so pleasing, why it gives a sense of completeness. I started to play around with this idea and it led me in all kinds of directions, mainly way, way out into the universe. From what little astronomy I’ve had, I know that we “hear sounds” from the universe – from galaxies and stars and other celestial objects. What is this “music of the universe?” Are these patterns of vibrations from the universe resonating with the electrical impulses or vibrations in our human bodies, down to the sub-atomic level, in such a way that they feel naturally harmonious to us? I can’t help feeling that there is an elegant order to the universe that covers everything in it, including humans. I think we only get glimpses of this elegance and its meanings, but we keep searching. Music, light, everything goes back to Shannon’s idea of “just information” in its fundamental form. We use all kinds of tools to collect and analyze and “portray” this information from all around us. For example, we use radio telescopes to “see and hear” information – we can choose to hear it as a sound, or see it as a picture. I’m straying away from the idea of musical chords, but that’s what happens when you play with ideas. I guess what I’m thinking is that musical chords are one of the more elegant types of information that humans crave. Dissonance, as well, has it’s own place in the universe and in human lives. We always have opposites existing, and dissonance is what helps make consonance so pleasing. What is interesting to me is how we can acquire a liking for dissonance – some cultures even prefer this. Perhaps for them the sounds are not discordant as they might be for others. What does that mean about how they see the universe? Whew – I’ve just gotten my brain tied into knots. I guess what I’m saying from all of this is that there must be some kind of underlying order based on certain patterns of wavelengths that we perceive as sounds or sights, and that please us because of some kind of harmony they generate within us. I’ve just talked in a big circle, but it’s fun to think about!