How Music Unites Remembrance and Healing: Perspectives from a Bugler and Music Psychologist
Photography: Robert Blackburn
From the moment Army Bugler Corporal David Robinson first heard the Army band perform in his hometown of Wahring, Victoria as a child, he was captivated.
Across his 20 years of service, he has brought music to hundreds of thousands of people form the tiniest of town halls in Victoria, to the hills of Malaysia.
Whether he is performing in front of crowds in the tens, or tens of thousands, one thing remains – the way the music makes him feel.
In the same way music has mesmerised David since childhood, it has always played a critical role in commemoration and the processing of emotions after loss.
Music has the power to evoke a wide range of emotions from joy to mournfulness, gratitude to grief. But what is it about music that has this effect? How can music evoke such strong emotions in those who hear it, and what are the characteristics that create this effect?
The history of remembrance music
Music, by its very nature, has the power to provoke emotions and memories with something as simple as a sustained note that fades to silence, or a short melodic passage.
The first two notes of the Last Post alone are iconic and well-recognised to elicit a wide range of feelings from nostalgia to grief to gratitude.
Music has not only become an important and iconic part of Australian commemorative services, but it has also served a purpose in commemoration throughout history.
Professor Jane Davidson, from the Conservatorium of Music and the University of Melbourne, is an expert in music psychology.
She said research suggests remembrance music has served a purpose for centuries. “Archaeologist Brian Hayden argues that songs have been performed for over 100,000 years,” she said.
“Many mourning rituals include music, and as services of remembrance emerged over history, they had music strongly associated with them across cultures.”
PROF JANE DAVIDSON
In its purest form, music allows audiences and performers to externalise feelings, and offers a platform where grief can be processed, individually and across the masses.
“Because of its emotional potency, music can get us all feeling the same thing at the same time, and so can help us share in grief or even express it cathartically in rituals like lamenting,” Professor Davidson said.
Music also plays a powerful role in conjuring memories by acting as a ‘stimulus’ to transport listeners to a specific time and place.
“Historically, it has been recognised that music can not only impact and work with memory, but it has the capacity to influence and shape mood, which can also have a role in memory processing,” Professor Davidson said.
“The depth of experience, such as the elicitation of tears and of goosebumps, can affect the depth of processing and meaning someone brings to their musical memories.”
The characteristics of remembrance music
It’s a chilling experience to hear the opening notes of the Last Post as dawn breaks on ANZAC Day. David knows the feeling well.
As a listener, David said he casts his mind back to his serving relatives, like his great-grandfather who was also a musician, when he hears the Last Post.
When it comes to performing, his focus is more on conveying emotion through his music rather than expressing it himself.
“I’m fully aware of all the emotional things that can trigger for different people. But as a performer, because I probably get emotional myself, I try not to think about that until after I finish playing.”
When serving a memorial purpose, music is designed to evoke emotions related to mourning, yearning and remembrance.
Professor Davidson identified the “qualities of mournfulness” in the Last Post, and attributed this to the timbre, or sound quality, of the instrument it is performed on – the bugle, which is associated with military bands, the call to war, and the last call to rest for soldiers.
The solo bugle produces a hollow, mellow tone where audiences can hear the “decaying” tone as the breath fades, according to Professor Davidson.
It is also the “human-like” qualities that give it its emotional potency.
The music is said to mimic human action, like a slow walk to a stop and, in some passages, a sigh or wail.
“It has a sparse melody, comprising only three open notes, so it is long, sustained and pure,” Professor Davidson said.
“The melody ends with a decaying long-held note.
“The music is strongly imbued with emotional gestures that mimic humans.”
Circumstance also plays a role in remembrance music, according to Professor Davidson.
Another iconic piece of commemorative music is Edward Elgar’s Nimrod, which is performed at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, England, for the annual National Service of Remembrance.
Variations of Nimrod have been used in more modern war movies such as Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk (2017).
Like the Last Post, it also mimics “human-like” qualities and was composed to represent a conversation between the composer and his friend, Jaegar.
“There is tension and resolution. The main theme uses dissonance that always resolves to a safe tonic chord,” Professor Davidson said.
Music can also contribute to the feeling of solemnity and reflection by mirroring the “unfurling progression” of emotion with the devices described.
“We know that music can help us change our mood state and ultimately, remembrance music can take us through stages of grief or reflection on loss and move to a reflective or happier space.
The impact of remembrance music on an audience
A more recent performance in front of 95,000 people proved to David the sheer power of commemoration and music’s role in honouring the fallen.
On 25 April 2023, Corporal Robinson stepped out onto the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to perform the Last Post ahead of the annual ANZAC Day clash between the Essendon Bombers and Collingwood Magpies.
It marked his biggest performance to date.
“I couldn’t hear a peep from anyone because the crowd knew exactly what the purpose was,” he said.
“Once it all had happened, the absolute roar that happened – I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything like it.”
While unlike the crowd response at the MCG, David will often hear from audience members after he performs. He said the gentler reactions are often the ones that mean the most.
“One of the last times I played it, straight after, the guy who was in charge said, ‘The room where you were is pretty much all in tears’.
“It is kind of special but also an honour, really, of what I can perform and give that meaning for so many people who may have lost people as well.
“Whether you play in front of heaps of people, or it may be that small event out in the country where you think, ‘Hang on, there’s not that many people around’, for someone to still come up to you and say, ‘Thank you, thank you so much’ – I find that really powerful in itself.”
