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www.mind-study.org/power-of-music. The Power of Music. III Making Music The miracle of music is that it transforms h uman beings from solitary units into active components in the cosmic process. Don Campbell (1992:43). Mozart sonata for violin and
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www.mind-study.org/power-of-music The Power of Music III Making Music The miracle of music is that it transforms human beings from solitary units into active components in the cosmic process. Don Campbell (1992:43) Mozart sonata for violin and piano #24 in F major (4:30) ♫
Where We Are in the Course • Music—Easy to Understand yet Inexplicable • Things we Do Understand about Music • Making Music • Music and Brain • Music and Body, Music beyond Humans • Music Therapy
Topics for today • Musical Instruments • Performing • Dimensions of musical structure • Composing • Conducting
Early Musical Instruments • First musical instrument was probably percussion (incl. hands) • Singing was also very early • Likely dating from an age before language
Earliest known specifically musical instruments(Mannes 99ff) • Flutes carved from • Swan bones • Ivory tusks of mammoths • Griffin vulture • Found in a cave carved into a hill • Southern Germany, ca. 35,000 or more years ago • A very old one, perhaps older than 35,000 years, is carved from from a mammoth tusk, has four finger holes • Another, possibly even older, from a griffin vulture, has five finger holes
Why music, why so early? • Darwin’s speculation: • A male who could sing well had a better chance of attracting a mate (Mannes 102) • Cf. the sexiness of rock stars
Topics for today • Musical Instruments • Performing • Dimensionsof musical structure • Composing
Playing a musical instrument • A formidable skill (Jourdain 201Bf) • The motor cortex in performers • E.g. violinists • The premotor cortex • Planning movements • Higher-level organization of movements
Playing a musical instrument • Additional brain involvement in playing an instrument • Basal ganglia • Cerebellum • (Has more neurons than the cortex) • Somatosensory cortex (in parietal lobe) • Feedback of elementary movements • Other parts of parietal lobe • Higher-level feedback
Musical Experience and the Brain • In those who started piano by age 8, corpus callosum is • 15% larger than in those who started later • 15% larger than in those who don’t play at all • Practicing without touching the instrument • E.g., Glen Gould (Jourdain 229Bf)
Reading music • Uses still other parts of the brain • Mainly visual cortex • Occipital lobe • Parietal lobe • Temporal lobe
Topics for today • Musical Instruments • Performing • Dimensions of musical structure • Chord sequences • Musical phrases • Larger sequences • Beginnings, middles, and endings • Composing
Advantages of the Pythagorean scale (12 tone) • 12 notes is • not too many for efficient brain processing • Compare Indian scales, with many more tones • not too fewfor rich and interesting possibilities • Compare pentatonic scale • Provides for harmony that is natural • 5ths, 4ths, 3rds, etc. that are present in harmonics • So harmony developed in Europe but not in India • Compare Roman vs. Arabic numerals • About right for having the circle of fifths come out right
Topics relating to composition • Dimensions of musical structure • Chord sequences • Musical phrases and other short sequences • Larger sequences • Beginnings, middles, and endings
Chord sequences • Some chord transitions flow smoothly—consonance • Typically, to neighbors in the circle of fifths • Others grate on the mind—dissonance • “If a composer can find a new way of structuring chord progressions, one chord may resolve to another in what is blissful consonance for that system, although the same progression is deemed dissonant in traditional harmony” —Jourdain 1997:104
Chord sequence structures • “The classical music composer leads the listener from a fundamental through a series of chords that invariably return to the fundamental.” (Beaulieu 44M)
Over the Rainbow • http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/rainbow-takes-us-magical-musical-place/
Bali Hai • Vis-à-vis other songs in South Pacific
Rhythm and Harmony in Composing • Composers tend to use • simple rhythmic patterns when producing complex harmonic progressions • Why? • Tonal centers are reinforced by emphasizing certain notes • Best accomplished by making these notes coincide with strong rhythmic beats • Complex rhythmic devices (like syncopation) make those beats less predictable and thus less forceful (Jourdain 152)
Topics relating to composition • Dimensions of musical structure • Chord sequences • Musical phrases and other short sequences • Larger sequences • Beginnings, middles, and endings
The minds of great composers: Imagery and Memory • Exceptional auditory imagery • Example: Beethoven • Ninth symphony • Written when he was stone-deaf • But his auditory cortex was at its peak of ability • Just not receiving any input from ears • Memory • The role of memory in auditory imagery • Some great composers had prodigious memories • Mendelssohn • Left the only available copy of Midsummer Night’s Dream music in a London cab • Went home and wrote out the entire score from memory
The minds of great composers: Inspiration • Great composition flows freely . . • from where? • Arrives in composer’s mind fully formed • Wagner • It’s like a cow producing milk • Saint-Saens • Like an apple tree producing fruit • Mozart • Like a sow pissing (Jourdain 170)
The minds of great composers: Inspiration (cont’d) • Inspiration cannot be willed, just happens • What various composers have said about how it comes • Mozart: “…say, traveling in a carriage…or during the night when I cannot sleep” • More Mozart: “Whence and how they come I know not; nor can I force them” • Beethoven: “They come unbidden” • Handel (while writing the entire Messiah during a 24-day mania): “I thought I saw all of heaven before me, and the Great God himself” • Puccini: “The music of this opera was dictated to me by God” • Brahms: “I felt that I was in tune with the Infinite, and there is no thrill like it” (Jourdain 170)
The minds of great composers: Intuition and Theory • Composition vis-a-vis music theory • Great composers do not necessarily make conscious use of music theory • Stravinsky • Studied rules of harmony etc. only after using them intuitively • Rimsky-Korsakov • Knew nothing of music theory when appointed to U of St. Petersburg • Compare linguistic fluency and rules of grammar
The rarity of great composing talent • How many classical composers are heard in concert today? • About 250 • 20% of the compositions most played are by 3 composers • Bach, Mozart, Beethoven • 50% by 16 composers • 75% by 36 composers (Jourdain 194)
