the people are the thesis

Robert S. Root-Bernstein writes eloquently about the intersection of studying the arts and the sciences, supporting the theory that merging these fields through education contributes to greater creativity, and fosters the conditions for vast technological innovation.  In his article “Music, Creativity and Scientific Thinking,” he cites dozens of historical figures who themselves embody that intersection; Root-Bernstein credits their multiplicity of both scientific/mathematical and artistic skills as the foundation for their prolific developments and contributions to the furthering of our common civilization. 

We absolutely relish this article, but we’d like to challenge its scope: achieving musical excellence is nice, but excellence en masse is overrated: one not need be a great musician to be a great scientist and innovator, but the practice of artistic disciplines will make potential great scientists and philosophers into far stronger innovators. 

Musical skill, and all artistic skills, are not innate.  They are learned.  Some excel at specific fields, and can build a life from those fields, but the end goal of arts education doesn’t need to be the world’s next great opera diva, or maestro, or guitar hero, who all happen to be the next great nuclear physicist; the end goal should always be a positive experience teaching the love and joy of a craft, the discipline of steadied practice, the capacity for personal expression, the wonder of personal discovery, and the creative application of these skills to one’s whole life.  Through the arts, we can teach children to love steady work, find joy in focus and calm discipline, discover creative outlets for their thoughts and musings, create wonder in the mechanics of the world around them, and apply that creativity to innovations that will enhance their own lives, and those of others.

We can directly enumerate the benefits of arts education, and examples of how it applies to non-arts careers:

• Theatrical ensemble arts, such as musical theater and theater, hone personal interactive skills and foster sensitivity to others, increasing capacity for empathy.  The study of improvisation also sharpens one’s reaction times, mental flexibility, and hones focus.  These skills are vital for those who work in mental health and social services, law enforcement, education, and the service industry. 
• Through music ensemble work, we foster the capacity to listen, a further development of sensitivity to others, and an enhancement to attention to detail.  Listening in and of itself is an underrated, under served, and vital skill, particularly in this age of smart-phone and tablet seclusion.
• Through the study of musical instruments, we enhance fine motor skills, hand/eye coordination, and further enhance the capacity to listen with great care through instrumental ensembles.  These skills are vital for medical professionals, especially surgeons.
• Participation in the choral arts (singing in a choir) enhances the capacity to listen and blend, and to fine tune one’s own output with that of one’s peers, a vital skill for anyone working in diplomatic circumstances.  Regular choral singing gives children the advantage of building empathy skills in ways their peers do not.  Studies also show that regular choral singing has physiological benefits, lowering blood pressure, enhancing peace of mind, and enjoying a sense of community-driven satisfaction.
• Through the study of music composition, we enhance math skills, as music theory is nothing more than aural mathematics.  There are also studies that theorize a neurological correlation between engineering a physical structure, such as a bridge or a building or a city, and engineering a musical structure, like writing a piece of music.  These theories postulate that exercising the engineering of a musical structure enhances one’s ingenuity when engineering a physical structure.  In other words, architects and engineers would be better at their work if they also composed.
• Dance provides incredible physical exercise, but more importantly, it teaches physical discipline, a vital skill for living a long and healthy life.  It also enables us to use the breadth of our bodies for expression, yet one more tool for releasing the rising anxiety levels that typify the emotional states of modern children.  In an age where children are prone to sedentary activities, dance is a useful tool to increase athleticism in a peer-driven environment.
• Creative writing, whether it's prose or poetry, fiction or philosophy, provides a concrete linguistic output, and enhances the capacity to communicate with subtlety and nuance, vital for anyone working in the humanities, or law.
• The visual arts provide vast transferable capabilities, further enhancing fine motor skills, hand/eye coordination, visual/spatial perspective (which correlates to physics), and most importantly, attention to detail, more specifically visual acuity, which is vital for anyone working in medicine or law enforcement.

The above examples offer no standard for artistic output; while mastering a reproduction of Van Gogh’s Starry Night or a Mozart piano sonata may discipline one’s skills more than crocheting or playing pop music on a keyboard, given the right environment, the result can be much the same.  Furthermore, ground-breaking artists have made vast contributions to the field of art through textile work (see Elizabeth Demaray's Nike Missile Cozy Project) and rock and pop musicians have influenced and developed some of the most important aural technological advancements in the history of humanity: the entire of Silicon Valley. 

The jazz crooner, Bing Crosby, learned of the magnetic tape innovations German scientists had developed for recording, editing and transmitting sound.  John T. Mullin, an audio engineer who served with the U.S. Army Signal Corp during the war, had initially acquired the technology from Germany in 1944 while investigating another matter.  Until the 1940s, American musicians recorded directly to vinyl records, which had no editing capacity, and radio programs were either played from vinyl, which was rare as the sound quality was poor, or were performed live, which was rigorous.  Being both an experienced musician and savvy entrepreneur, Crosby realized the full potential for the magnetic tape for American music and radio: recording and editing not just songs, but full hour-long programs, which would significantly improve production and sound quality, reduce production costs, and would increase competition for excellence in entertainment.  After World War II, Crosby himself invested fifty thousand dollars in Ampex to develop the technology for commercial use; at the time, Ampex was based in Redwood City, Silicon Valley.  Their initiatives and developments led to IBM's first magnetic tape computer hard drive, which led to all technological computing developments since, including the device on which you are reading this text.

Incorporating broad-based arts education is the formula for fostering strong scientific and mathematical education, strong technological and scientific advancement and innovation (including the invaluable contributions of mathematicians), a sensitive populace concerned with the betterment of their social world, and a strong, evolving, egalitarian community.  Our children don’t need to be the next Rembrandt, Shakespeare or Beethoven; those great figures of the arts are unmatched in their achievements, but they didn’t invent, for instance, the stethoscope. However, René Laennec, a physician, amateur painter, and hobbyist flautist, did invent the stethoscope, and his flute had a lot in common with that vital piece of medical equipment, much refined but still standard in medical practice today.

Albert Einstein was an accomplished violinist.  Thomas Edison, who was partially deaf, began his career working with telegraph equipment, ironically requiring both aural acuity and strong hand/eye coordination; he later invented the phonograph, the first technology to record sound, as well as many other devices that relied on sound transmitted through electricity, such as the first stock ticker and advancements in telegraphy technology.  In light of his vast contributions to technology, the light bulb itself was a bonus that derived from his work with electricity, which stemmed from his first work, manipulating electricity for sound production.

Galileo, the Father of Modern Science, a great mathematician and, by our standards, the first great astro-physicist, inventor of significant improvements to the telescope, and the first to use Aristotelian method-based evidence to argue the theory of the solar system, was himself a musician.  His father, Vincenzo Galilei, was a successful professional musician, and a member of the Camerata, a group of Florentine nobles who invented Opera at the end of the Renaissance period.  Vincenzo was a lute player, a stringed instrument, and Galileo himself was well practiced at his father’s craft; his knowledge of the role of string lengths in music inspired his first scientific research – the role of string lengths in the motion of a pendulum.  Music was the foundation upon which he built the theories that carried both his career, and Western Civilization, closer to the Age of Enlightenment.  Pythagoras himself, the Ionian Greek astronomer, philosopher and mathematician credited with the Pythagorean theorem, discovered the proportions of the theorem utilizing a plucked string instrument; even Pythagoras was a musician.

Below, we include further luminaries of history who were musicians, who also contributed great advancements to medicine and technology, borrowing heavily from Root-Bernstein’s article (cited below), which you can find through the JSTOR database (see Research 101, or talk to a librarian for assistance – it’s really easy to use). 

We also invite you to send us names and information on other historical or living figures who were practiced musicians, and whose accomplishments in the sciences and humanities are significant, including documentation.

From Robert S. Root-Bernstein’s “Music, Creativity and Scientific Thinking” Leonardo Vol. 34, No. 1 (2001): 63-68. Web. 21 Nov. 2015

• William Herschel, 1738-1822, composer and influential 19th century astronomer      
• Hector Berlioz, 1803-1869, influential composer and practicing physician
• Aleksandr Borodin, 1833-1887, influential composer and Professor of Chemistry, Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy, St. Petersburg, Russia
• Sir Edward Elgar, 1857-1934, influential composer, held patent on a formula to produce hydrogen sulfide, developed in his private chemistry laboratory
• Ernest Ansermet, 1883-1969, composer, mathematics instructor at University of Lausanne
• Iannis Xenakis, 1922-2001, composer, mathematician and architect, philosopher
• Richard Bing, 1909-2010, composer, cardiologist and internationally reknowned medical researcher, recipient of the Claude Bernard Medal
• Tom Eisner, 1929-2011, conductor and pianist, entemologist and Schurman Professor of Biology, Cornell University
• Camille Saint Saëns, 1835-1921, influential composer and astronomer
• Joseph Schillinger, 1895-1943 influential composer and mathematician
• Walter Thirring, 1927-2014, composer and internationally renowned physicist, Institut fur Theoretische Physik, University of Vienna
• René Laennec, 1781-1826, 19th century physician, painter, flautist, invented the stethoscope

And we'd just like to add one more, in honor of his extraordinary scholarship:

• Robert S. Root-Bernstein, b. 1953, hero to musicians, physiologist at Michigan State University

“The arts – neither the panacea to ameliorate all that troubles us in education nor the beacon of all possibility – offer us a lens through which to examine long-standing questions, provocative ways to (re)consider creativity, opportunity to reimagine engagement, and a renewed sense of possibility that can lead us to the formation of new epistemologies.” (54-55)

- Vivian L. Gadsden's “The Arts and Education: Knowledge Generation, Pedagogy, and the Discourse of Learning” Review of Research in Education, Vol. 32, What Counts as Knowledge in Educational Settings: Disciplinary Knowledge, Assessment, and Curriculum (2008): 29-61. Web. 21 Nov. 2015

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