I just finished watching an amazing video clip where music cognition enthusiast and author Oliver Sacks is tested for certain mental response to different musical stimuli. Before Sacks enters the MRI, he states that he prefers Bach to Beethoven. Two tests are then done.
Test 1: Bach is played first and then Beethoven. Sacks knows which is which. He indicates that he "felt" more emotional when listening to the Bach. Similarly, the brain scans reveal a strong reaction from his brain's amygdala (see my 'A Brainy Review' post) when listening to the Bach and almost no reaction when listening to Beethoven.
Test 2: A clip of Bach is played and clip of Beethoven is played. This time, however, the clips played sound very similar and so Sacks cannot determine which is which. He therefore doesn't perceive much emotional change throughout the duration of both recordings, ...or so he thinks...The brain scans tell a different story, however. Even though Sacks couldn't distinguish between the two recordings, his brain could. The scans showed that his amygdala had a much greater response to the Bach than to the Beethoven.
This illustrates a rift between how we are aware we perceive music, and how we truly perceive music from a biological point of view. It also sheds light on how we are still unable to consciously access all parts of our brains.
Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyY1ul_DbcQ&feature=fvw
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
An Expression of Emotion
I recently subscribed to a magazine journal titled Music Perception published by University of California Press. The other day I read through a very revealing lab report published in the journal titled "Perception of Expression in Conductors' Gestures: A Continuous Response Study."
The results of the experiment show that the eye has more say than the ear in perceiving level of performance expression. The more distance the conductor emphasizes between hands and the more aggressive the movement of his/her hands, the more musical expression of the orchestra is perceived.
A typical concert-goer probably takes for granted without thinking about it "oh yeah, stronger bodily movements = more expression in music." This leads into a conversation about the role of the conductor. Some pessimists speculate that in the future years of exponentially improving technology, there will be no more need for conductors. Every performer will have a computer chip placed in his/her ear that will keep tempo and remind him/her to get louder or quieter at given spots in the music.
While this may work for the orchestra, think about how the audience response would change given the experiment described above. Without being able to see a conductor really get into the music as he conducts the orchestra, the audience would likely perceive much less emotion in the performance because there wouldn't be the visual stimulus of the conductor. People would likely then become less interested in going to live performances which would be detrimental to the concert hall industry.
The results of this lab may also help to explain why people tend to have a stronger emotional response at a concert than if they are just listening to music on an iPod. If a person does have a strong emotional reaction to music they are listening to that isn't live, chances are they are connecting some sort of strong visual and/or physical action to what they are listening to.
The results of the experiment show that the eye has more say than the ear in perceiving level of performance expression. The more distance the conductor emphasizes between hands and the more aggressive the movement of his/her hands, the more musical expression of the orchestra is perceived.
A typical concert-goer probably takes for granted without thinking about it "oh yeah, stronger bodily movements = more expression in music." This leads into a conversation about the role of the conductor. Some pessimists speculate that in the future years of exponentially improving technology, there will be no more need for conductors. Every performer will have a computer chip placed in his/her ear that will keep tempo and remind him/her to get louder or quieter at given spots in the music.
While this may work for the orchestra, think about how the audience response would change given the experiment described above. Without being able to see a conductor really get into the music as he conducts the orchestra, the audience would likely perceive much less emotion in the performance because there wouldn't be the visual stimulus of the conductor. People would likely then become less interested in going to live performances which would be detrimental to the concert hall industry.
The results of this lab may also help to explain why people tend to have a stronger emotional response at a concert than if they are just listening to music on an iPod. If a person does have a strong emotional reaction to music they are listening to that isn't live, chances are they are connecting some sort of strong visual and/or physical action to what they are listening to.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Sequentially Speaking..
The other day, my faculty mentor came up to me with a question about what made a certain piece sound so "appealing." She was referring to a piece called "Crucifixis" by Lotti. The answer to her question lies in the term "musical sequence."As most of you have probably never heard of this piece before, I will illustrate the idea of a musical sequence using a more common example.
Let's take "Angels We Have heard on High," a well known Christmas hymn.
It can be listened to here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IrGV8gG8rs
Please go to 00:25 and pay close attention. What's going on in the music when the words "Glo----ria in excelsis deo" appear??
The answer is a musical sequence. In general, a sequence is an immediate restatement of a given series of notes in a higher or lower pitch. The word "GLO--ria"is held as the music follows a downward sequential pattern.The first note of each measure within the sequence goes down by a step, from 5 to1. The first measure of the sequence starts on the 5th scale degree "GLO", the second measure starts on the 4th scale degree, the third measure starts on the 3rd scale degree, the fourth measure starts on the 2nd scale degree. Similar downward moving 8th notes transition from each of these tones to the next in the a repetitive pattern. Finally the sequence ends and we are back to the "tonic" or "first scale degree" of the key which makes you feel back at home "RIA."
The use of such a pattern is like "ear candy" to the listener, partly because such sequences tend to be "sing songy" in that they follow a very obvious pattern of expectation. If the music begins to fall in a certain pattern, we will expect it to continue falling in that pattern. However, it would be boring if an entire piece was just a long sequence because there would be no element of surprise and therefore no rewarding feeling of being able to make sense of something unexpected (see the ITPRA Theory discussed earlier).
Let's take "Angels We Have heard on High," a well known Christmas hymn.
It can be listened to here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IrGV8gG8rs
Please go to 00:25 and pay close attention. What's going on in the music when the words "Glo----ria in excelsis deo" appear??
The answer is a musical sequence. In general, a sequence is an immediate restatement of a given series of notes in a higher or lower pitch. The word "GLO--ria"is held as the music follows a downward sequential pattern.The first note of each measure within the sequence goes down by a step, from 5 to1. The first measure of the sequence starts on the 5th scale degree "GLO", the second measure starts on the 4th scale degree, the third measure starts on the 3rd scale degree, the fourth measure starts on the 2nd scale degree. Similar downward moving 8th notes transition from each of these tones to the next in the a repetitive pattern. Finally the sequence ends and we are back to the "tonic" or "first scale degree" of the key which makes you feel back at home "RIA."
The use of such a pattern is like "ear candy" to the listener, partly because such sequences tend to be "sing songy" in that they follow a very obvious pattern of expectation. If the music begins to fall in a certain pattern, we will expect it to continue falling in that pattern. However, it would be boring if an entire piece was just a long sequence because there would be no element of surprise and therefore no rewarding feeling of being able to make sense of something unexpected (see the ITPRA Theory discussed earlier).
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)