My OperaBook Review
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 10:02:17 PM
A new book for the shelves of anybody trying to understand why we like and seem to need music is Oliver Sacks Musicophilia. Like his other books which are made up of case studies this one is no different but the intention is as his explorations are similar to those of earlier researchers into brain function. He is getting a better picture of how we process musical ideas and sounds in a way that shows just how important music is to the human organism. Forms of aphasia tell us not only about a faulty brain but give us an insight into well ones and in this case the music is the medium through which his case studies draw out threads about our aesthetic selves.
Worth more than a look for anybody with an interest in the how and why of music.
Worth more than a look for anybody with an interest in the how and why of music.
Kamelbluecoffee # Tuesday, December 11, 2007 10:33:15 PM
what we can found about it May be it's what you say
for me it's not completely clear
Anthony MaydwellCarloGesualdo # Tuesday, December 11, 2007 11:18:25 PM
The suggestion that what Sacks is doing is "only theory" suggests are limited view of scientific experimentation and development.
Many theories are extremely solid ways of viewing the world having been through generations of empirical exploration and attempted falsification. I suggest that you are using the term in the sense of "hypothesis" rather than "theory" as such.
With relatively recent developments in brain scanning it is now possible to understand the brain while it works whereas the likes of Sigmund Freud through B.F.Skinner could only hypothesize.
With CAT, PET, MRI, significant advances in cranial surgery and genetics we have insights that no previous generation could have imagined.
Consider also reading "This is your brain on music" by Daniel J. Levin which is a more focussed work on music and brain function.
Of course, there is much we do not know. Nevetheless, we now know a great deal more and music seems to be a very old and deeply seated part of the human psyche.
Anthony MaydwellCarloGesualdo # Tuesday, December 11, 2007 11:20:02 PM
Daniel J. Levitin
Kamelbluecoffee # Tuesday, December 11, 2007 11:57:37 PM
but how to understand the way we feels when we heard some music
why some musics seem to talk to you and suggered sometimes more
that what you seem to understand
sometimes more that what the musician or the artist seems to tell
Anthony MaydwellCarloGesualdo # Thursday, February 14, 2008 12:39:59 PM
I've been on a research trip to Bolivia for the last couple of months. So, please forgive my tardiness in replying...
Music and emotion.
Why do we connect with some pieces of music and not others?
It would be very easy to give a superficial answer to this question.
It seems to me that there are different causes to the effect that music has upon us.
Here's a list in no particular order:
Nostalgic: The connection of an event, positive or negative, that was accompanied by music new to the listener.
Biological: The physical effect of combinations of pitch, pace of events and volume leading to certain relatively uniform psychophysical results.
Intellectual: By understanding the concepts or processes of composition and/or performance we are 'impressed' positively or negatively by what we experience.
Social: The communal context can have a major impact on how we react to music. Was the music part of a mass experience or an event of relative solitude?
A combination of two or more of the above...and there's bound to be other possible lists.
It is also true to say that relatively recent research suggests that musically trained individuals react to music differently to those who are not. The analytical comes into play with the trained group.
Clearly the more complex the music and the circumstances the harder it will be to determine which factors are the effective ones.
And welcome to all those (few, at this stage, who've joined in the discussion).
Kamelbluecoffee # Thursday, February 14, 2008 6:42:54 PM
my english is not so good
I read and I tell you...