Why it's a Mind Blow: We've all seen trained circus animals perform on command; roll over, bang a gong, that sort of thing. But Shanti the elephant is a horse of a different color. Her handlers at the National Zoo observed a distinctly musical inclination in her relationship to the world, and so to help Shanti explore her passions, they offered up a harmonica. Shanti went straight to work, composing songs with repetitive patterns and a crescendoed flourish at the end that has become the artist's signature.
Music is a language, a means of communication and communion that transcends division. One anthropological study, for example, shared different compositions with people from isolated tribes around the world; deep in the rain forest, in sub-Saharan Africa, etc. Despite a lack of any common social and environmental heritage, these people reported experiencing very similar emotions. Music spoke to all of them, and its message was consistent.
Shanti the elephant shows us that music can reach far beyond mere cultural differences. Perhaps that's why the Voyager 1 probe, currently breaching the edge of our solar system, carries a golden record of music from around the globe. If there is anyone out there listening, it is our music that we need them to hear. It is music that they are most likely to understand, and it is music that is most likely to bring us together.
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