tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7181744309080861233.post6032593808034472694..comments2024-01-12T00:48:55.192-08:00Comments on Music and Brain Blog at University of Toronto: New Music: Our Brain on Atonal and Serialist MusicLee Bartelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06727468225852676801noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7181744309080861233.post-64701572572252308522012-12-10T08:54:00.657-08:002012-12-10T08:54:00.657-08:00I am so glad that you tackled this topic, Erica. ...I am so glad that you tackled this topic, Erica. I personally found Jourdain's explanation of how we "listen" to be lacking. Jourdain seems to be describing what one might do in a simple, tonal, periodic piece of music and conclude that because of the highly predictable nature of the music, we yield the most pleasure from it. However, I know a number of people that can get far more pleasure from listening to 12-tone and total serial music, whose listening has been developed - like you suggested at the conclusion of your essay - to be able to perceive such complex structures. <br /><br />I also wrote my mini-essay on how Western audiences can (or cannot) perceive Balinese music and bive-versa and I find that these questions overlap with your tonal/a-tonal music.<br /><br />An extremely interesting conclusion of the Balinese music study was that of the Balinese participants that had not ever been exposed to Western music (who had been very difficult to find!), some identified tonal schema in western pitches using a method called the probe-tone method. The suggested conclusion was that while Balinese music has no tonal centers, there may be something cross-cultural about the hierarchical structure of tonality. Marketahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08189732396057928885noreply@blogger.com