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Dear Sir:
Missing from the article “Psychoanalytic Considerations on Music and the Musician,” by Heinrich Racker, is a definition of primitive music.
Vocal music among primitive peoples falls into two classes: “pathogenic,” a disciplined shouting, in which the musical line leaps and jumps; and “Iogogenic,” or exaggerated speech, in which the line moves in smaller intervals around a chant tone. In either case, as well as in the case of instrumental music, the sound is made as unnatural as possible. That is because the unnatural is thought by primitive people to be supernatural. Tones are ordered in un(super) natural ways and performed in un(super) natural ways in order to achieve supernatural, or magical, control of the natural environment. The musical productions of small children have been found to resemble those of (current) primitive peoples. Discussion of these points can be found in various books by Curt Sachs.
If the content of Dr. Rackets patient, “Ingrid,” is considered in this context, the symbolism becomes less complex, and the magical defensive function of the music is clarified. The patient invoked music in one form or another as a magical source of power. In the analysis it might prove helpful to consider that references to music indicate situations in which the patient needs to resort to magical power.