Jottings - Slice of life - 438 ( The year 2020 for me - part 3) Of all the arts, Music is the most mysterious, baffling, and therapeutic. It is still least understood how a column of air set to vibration by a mechanical instrument transforms itself into tones, harmonies, and melodies inside the human brain; and even more astounding is the subjective emotional states it gives rise to. Why an elongated stretch of tonal arrangement makes one sad, why do notes strung together in a certain alliterative sequence make us happy or meditative; or equally, why should some musical phrases seem cacophonous or irritating to the ears. Even Darwin couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation of the purpose of music in the human species. In his epochal treatise the “the descent of man” he wrote in a resigned tone: “ As neither the enjoyment nor the capacity to produce musical notes are faculties of the least use to man…. they must be ranked among the most mysterious with which he is endowed”. D