Reference
This event, called Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus looked at cultural similarities and differences in our understanding of music. They discussed pitch, intervals, timbre, rhythm, etc. as universal elements of music. However, the way we employ these stylistically and interpret its combinations varies depending on preset associations in our brain.
What struck me most when I first saw this video is the ease with which a general audience can grasp the pentatonic scale. Now, it's not a terribly hard scale, but it shows how quickly expectation is created. Soon, Bobby McFerrin can have the audience sing while he "conducts" and they fill in the notes with ease. It's hard to say whether the audience came from musically diverse backgrounds, but quite possibly, most of them grew up in the western music tradition. I wonder how easily other cultures might grasp this scale---perhaps its wide use in a variety of cultures ensures that there is something "universal" about it. More likely, though, is that there is a universal capacity to be enculturated.
I have a beginner-level piano student who has just learned "Engine, Engine" on the black keys. I asked her to make up a song on the black keys, and after playing it she said, "That sounds more asian." This is a student who doesn't listen to much music at home, and has somehow, through our culture, made this association.
To be honest, I am quite simply amazed at how the brain forges pathways of thought. This can be advantageous in that a receptive mind can be taught quickly. But the potential for a stubborn mind also exists. Defying expectation can lead to further learning and expansion of the mind. I'm curious to know what happens in a brain that rejects anything other than what it expects.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Vocal Psychotherapy: A fine balance of objectivity and subjectivity
A Summary and Review of a Vocal Psychotherapy presentation at the 2009 CAMT (Canadian Association for Music Therapy) 35th Annual Conference, May 6-9, 2009.
Summary: Earlier this year, I attended the CAMT Annual Conference, a gathering of many of Canada’s music therapy practitioners, researchers, teachers, interns and students. The conference consisted of many different events including workshops, lectures, poster presentations, ceremonies, video screenings and motivational speakers. The various facets of the conference offered opportunities for everyone (including people like me with little to no experience in formal music therapy) an opportunity for learning and growth. The presentations covered an incredibly broad range of subjects including stories from the palliative care patient’s beside to bringing the practice of music and cognition together to medical music therapy and the development of a clinical approach for people receiving hemodialysis. Several were particularly moving, including one of Dr. Diane Austin's talks.
Dr. Diane Austin, a music psychotherapist, founder of The Music Psychotherapy Center in New York and teacher at New York University gave a beautiful and brilliant presentation on vocal psychotherapy titled “When words sing and music speaks”. Her talk consisted of several anecdotes of patients she has worked with, and their journeys towards recovery. Using psychotherapeutic principles in combination with music and songwriting, such as free association to access the subconscious through writing lyrics and singing them, Dr. Austin was successfully able to help many clients open up about repressed feelings, and helped them solve unresolved issues. Dr. Austin discussed the principles of vocal psychotherapy including “free associative singing”, a technique that can be implemented when words enter the vocal holding process. It is closely linked to Freud’s technique of free association, however it differs in that the client is singing and not speaking. Furthermore, the therapist is also singing and adding to the client’s musical stream of consciousness. There is frequently a repetitive riff-like accompaniment which the therapist provides that serves as a backdrop to both the client’s and therapist’s voices. The music provides a sense of forward momentum as the client sings words, phrases, etc. Often, the therapist begins by repeating a word or phrase which the client sings, and often adds layers such as harmony, alternative rhythms, and other forms of variation. The repetition is meant to create and facilitate a safe environment in which the client feels comfortable expanding their vocal ideas. This practice is deeply rooted in psychotherapy practices involving the unconscious and is often used for clients who have suffered from trauma. Many music therapy practices are often employed when working with trauma sufferers, and has been shown to have astounding healing effects. I know of many case studies along these lines, but nothing was quite as powerful as when Dr. Austin played a tape of a session with one of her clients who was struggling with overcoming sexual abuse in her childhood. This client was a woman of about 45, and the session we heard was one of many that Dr. Austin had done with her. The dynamic between the client and Dr. Austin began very simply and steadily, and gradually increased to an intense, loud, emotional and rich musical expression of a childhood destroyed. Both client and therapist were singing with such power and expression that it almost sounded pre-scripted, although there was a sense of spontaneity and improvisation, since that is exactly what was happening. It was a beautiful expression of the power of music to unlock facets of the mind that may have otherwise been unaccessible.
Reflection: Although I have been witnessing and hearing about the incredible effects of music for a while now, I never cease to be astounded at the impact that music therapy can have. Almost every person sitting and listening to Dr. Austin’s client express herself through song wound up in tears. Something I have perpetually struggled with as an aspiring music therapist is the ability to engage clients in such intensely emotional work, but remain a somewhat objective participant. How can music therapists not become emotionally engaged and moved by the process? It seems to me that music therapists, as well as many other healthcare professionals have the responsibility of balancing their objectivity with a sensitive subjectivity necessary for the client feel a sense of mutual trust. I assume that in order for a client to be able to open up and share a part of themselves, they need to feel as though what they are offering their therapist does not fall on unfeeling ears. To me, empathy is such a huge part of the client/therapist relationship, however too much can be unproductive and even harmful. This is where objectivity comes in. In order for the therapist to be able to offer perspective and guide the healing process, they need to be somewhat cognitively stable, and they need to anticipate further action that would benefit the client. How can this role be fulfilled if the therapist is too emotionally engaged? Furthermore, the therapist has the responsibility to reign in a client, particularly with free associative singing if the client feels out of control (which is sometimes the case). Naturally, these questions and concerns are dealt with by therapists on a daily basis, and the training they undergo allows for, anticipates and provides coping mechanisms for these situations. Still, it seems to me to be a fine balance.
Another particularly interesting and common occurrence is countertransference, a Freudian concept which involves the therapist’s emotional entanglement with the client’s emotions. It can have several different meanings and facets, and can be hugely problematic if not dealt with. Although I do not know the extent to which counter-transference can go, I do know that it needs to be recognized and dealt with, or else it can have intensely difficult consequences. Closely related is the notion of the “wounded healer”, a Jungian term which refers to a therapist (or psychoanalyst) finding that a patient’s wounds activates their own. It is closely connected to countertransference and can also be potentially dangerous, as it can adversely affect the patient’s healing process and the therapist’s well-being. Dr. Austin discusses being a “wounded healer’ herself, yet she approaches it in a positive light in that she is very open about the various affects of her own childhood trauma and how she deals with it in light of the work she does with her clients.
On the whole, vocal psychotherapy has proven to be beneficial in many ways. It raises many issues regarding the therapist/client relationship and can be intensely emotional, however I do believe that the fine balance of therapist objectivity/subjectivity can be achieved.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Is My Brain Getting Too Big For My Skull?
Music and Brain Blog #2
Brian Graiser
Music of the mind, BBC News Online (Health), May 8 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1319753.stm
Synopsis: Significant evidence has been discovered through brain scanning that the brains of musicians may be physically altered by years of practice. Presented at the 2001 American Academy of Neurology meeting in Philadelphia, this research shows that certain regions of musicians’ brains are packed with a greater number of cells than those of an average person. In a study of 15 musicians and 15 non-musicians, German Professor Gottfried Schlaug used MRI scans to observe the size discrepancies in at least four regions of the brain, including those which process auditory cues and those which control physical responses to visual stimuli. However, at the time of the study it was unclear if this extra brain mass is a result of years of musical training, or if it is a pre-existing condition that routinely pre-disposes people towards pursuing musical careers. According to Professor Schlaug, “additional study is necessary to confirm causal relationships between intense motor training for a long period of time and structural changes in motor and non-motor related brain regions. An alternative explanation may be that these musicians were born with these differences, which may draw them towards their musical gifts."
In a similar study which seems to promote the notion of reshaping the brain, researchers from University College London (UK) scanned the brains of taxi drivers, and found that they had a larger hippocampus (associated with navigation in animals and birds) than average. Furthermore, the researchers noted a correlation between hippocampus size and career length; those who had been taxi drivers the longest had the largest hippocampi. However, according to Dr. Eleanor Maguire (who led the UK research team), it was unknown at the time whether such changes could occur in other areas of the cortex, or only in the hippocampus (thereby neither confirming nor denying the possibility of years of music practice physically altering the brain).
Reflection: It’s important to note that this article is from 2001; following today’s thinking on brain plasticity and development, it seems more apparent that music practice did, in fact, affect the brain (and not the other way around). Based on different recurring personality types one encounters at the average music school, I’d say it’s a safe bet that there are certain psychological and neurological conditions that pre-dispose people towards musical careers. However, the notion that years of practicing music can change the size and shape of my brain is particularly intriguing.
Given how physical percussion performance can be, I’ve long since learned to trust my brain when I practice, in the sense that if I will my muscles to perform a certain task over and over, eventually that motion will be ingrained in my muscle memory so that I don’t need to consciously think about every motion. However, it seems strange to me to equate the thousands upon thousands of such memorized mental commands with added physical mass in my brain. After all, during his autopsy it was found that Albert Einstein’s brain was physically average in size and weight; surely, if thought leads to added brain bulk, wouldn’t Einstein’s brain have to be huge?
I suspect the answer to this problem lies in the nature of what we consider brain plasticity. Rather than simply adding mass to parts of the brain, plasticity would instead reassign certain parts of the brain to tasks other than those for which they were originally intended. I would be interested in finding out if the researchers in this article were able to determine which regions of the brain had “loaned” their mass, or if they had even considered this. On that note, I would also be interested in finding out what, if any, quantifiable relationship there is between mental activity and the amount of mass “reassigned” through brain plasticity; how many years would I have to practice (or drive a cab) in order to add 15 milligrams of mass to my cortex? In extreme cases, could this redistribution of mass theoretically lead to headaches or other physiological problems? Is there a limit to how much of my brain that can be reassigned? Food for thought, to be sure.
Brian Graiser
Music of the mind, BBC News Online (Health), May 8 2001. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1319753.stm
Synopsis: Significant evidence has been discovered through brain scanning that the brains of musicians may be physically altered by years of practice. Presented at the 2001 American Academy of Neurology meeting in Philadelphia, this research shows that certain regions of musicians’ brains are packed with a greater number of cells than those of an average person. In a study of 15 musicians and 15 non-musicians, German Professor Gottfried Schlaug used MRI scans to observe the size discrepancies in at least four regions of the brain, including those which process auditory cues and those which control physical responses to visual stimuli. However, at the time of the study it was unclear if this extra brain mass is a result of years of musical training, or if it is a pre-existing condition that routinely pre-disposes people towards pursuing musical careers. According to Professor Schlaug, “additional study is necessary to confirm causal relationships between intense motor training for a long period of time and structural changes in motor and non-motor related brain regions. An alternative explanation may be that these musicians were born with these differences, which may draw them towards their musical gifts."
In a similar study which seems to promote the notion of reshaping the brain, researchers from University College London (UK) scanned the brains of taxi drivers, and found that they had a larger hippocampus (associated with navigation in animals and birds) than average. Furthermore, the researchers noted a correlation between hippocampus size and career length; those who had been taxi drivers the longest had the largest hippocampi. However, according to Dr. Eleanor Maguire (who led the UK research team), it was unknown at the time whether such changes could occur in other areas of the cortex, or only in the hippocampus (thereby neither confirming nor denying the possibility of years of music practice physically altering the brain).
Reflection: It’s important to note that this article is from 2001; following today’s thinking on brain plasticity and development, it seems more apparent that music practice did, in fact, affect the brain (and not the other way around). Based on different recurring personality types one encounters at the average music school, I’d say it’s a safe bet that there are certain psychological and neurological conditions that pre-dispose people towards musical careers. However, the notion that years of practicing music can change the size and shape of my brain is particularly intriguing.
Given how physical percussion performance can be, I’ve long since learned to trust my brain when I practice, in the sense that if I will my muscles to perform a certain task over and over, eventually that motion will be ingrained in my muscle memory so that I don’t need to consciously think about every motion. However, it seems strange to me to equate the thousands upon thousands of such memorized mental commands with added physical mass in my brain. After all, during his autopsy it was found that Albert Einstein’s brain was physically average in size and weight; surely, if thought leads to added brain bulk, wouldn’t Einstein’s brain have to be huge?
I suspect the answer to this problem lies in the nature of what we consider brain plasticity. Rather than simply adding mass to parts of the brain, plasticity would instead reassign certain parts of the brain to tasks other than those for which they were originally intended. I would be interested in finding out if the researchers in this article were able to determine which regions of the brain had “loaned” their mass, or if they had even considered this. On that note, I would also be interested in finding out what, if any, quantifiable relationship there is between mental activity and the amount of mass “reassigned” through brain plasticity; how many years would I have to practice (or drive a cab) in order to add 15 milligrams of mass to my cortex? In extreme cases, could this redistribution of mass theoretically lead to headaches or other physiological problems? Is there a limit to how much of my brain that can be reassigned? Food for thought, to be sure.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Arts Training & Cognition
Reference
How Arts Training Influences Cognition
By Michael Posner, Ph.D., Mary K. Rothbart, Ph.D., Brad E. Sheese, Ph.D., and Jessica Kieras, Ph.D., University of Oregon
http://www.dana.org/news/publications/detail.aspx?id=10762
Summary
The authors of the study sought to examine how arts training can improve cognition via attention mechanisms in the brain. They hypothesized that executive attentional areas of the brain can be improved through specific training. Enthusiasm for the arts, including music, might allow children to pay closer attention to artistic pursuits. This enthusiasm may therefore lead to improved motivation, allowing for better attention, and therefore cognitive improvement.
Surveys with adults showed that interest in a particular art correlated with actual engagement in the art. A general openness towards the arts led to an appreciation for the arts (except dance, which it seems the survey did not define well as some took it to refer to dancing that happens socially, rather than as a performance art).
Tests on children showed that motivation (by means of a reward or through knowing how they did on a task) leads to better performance on tasks, especially when the motivation is sustained for longer periods. They stated that “findings support the idea that interest in the arts allows for sustained attention, providing an increased opportunity for the training to be effective”, though the way the study specifically supports this is unclear. By their own admission, “[t]he link between arts training and motivation, though plausible, remains speculative, and needs to be tested through experimental research.” Nonetheless, the idea is that if children are open to and interested in the arts, then they are likely to be motivated to pursue that art and to sustain attention through artistic activities.
The researchers also used attention training to examine the executive attentional network (midline and lateral frontal areas) in the brain, which is engaged in self-regulation of cognition and emotion. The aim of this training, which was related to emotion and cognition regulation, was to see if it improves cognition. The exercises were designed to be interesting and motivating. EEG results showed that the training did improve the function of the executive attentional network in resolving conflict. The network in these children (6-year-olds) resembled that of adults. These children also scored better on intelligence tests.
Not all children benefited from the attention training. Genetic differences seem dependent on the form of a dopamine transmitter gene present in the child. The researchers involved in this study are therefore continuing research in genetics to determine whether certain genes lead to interest in the arts, and to greater attention.
Reflection
The ability to sustain attention is usually a characteristic teachers long to find and further develop in their students. Often, we associate attention or focus with learning, or at least the increased possibility of it. Teaching very young children has certainly posed many challenges for me and I continually seek ways to attract their attention.
Unfortunately, this article did not specify the tasks involved in the attention training given to children. The researchers assume that interest creates motivation and sustained attention, but do not explain how the latter can be improved by certain activities. In this study, the attention tasks used seem to be related to conflict tasks, though it is not very clear. In the introduction, they state that the training consisted of conflict resolution training, but their outline of the actual study conflates the details of the tasks, making it difficult to give a clear summary. They say that the conflict-resolution tasks were interesting in the way they “assume arts training to be for children with the appropriate interests.” It would have been helpful to know what caught the children’s interests.
I also noticed that this study used training exercises that were not artistic, but it nonetheless claims that artistic training likely improves attention and that this would translate to improved overall cognition. Supporting the hypothesis about the link between the arts and cognition without using artistic tasks leaves me wanting further direct explanation.
From my own experience, it does seem that musical training instills a sense of focus and perseverance that is linked to motivation. The physical and mental training involved in acquiring skills of musicianship require patience, and continued practice may train the executive attentional networks of the brain in the way any continued exercise reinforces neuronal pathways in the brain. I continue to wonder how to train these networks, though. I find that studies on attention as it relates to music frequently claim that music study improves attention but the “how” question has not been answered in any study I’ve come across. I think many teachers would benefit from knowing the types of activities that train students to focus.
How Arts Training Influences Cognition
By Michael Posner, Ph.D., Mary K. Rothbart, Ph.D., Brad E. Sheese, Ph.D., and Jessica Kieras, Ph.D., University of Oregon
http://www.dana.org/news/publications/detail.aspx?id=10762
Summary
The authors of the study sought to examine how arts training can improve cognition via attention mechanisms in the brain. They hypothesized that executive attentional areas of the brain can be improved through specific training. Enthusiasm for the arts, including music, might allow children to pay closer attention to artistic pursuits. This enthusiasm may therefore lead to improved motivation, allowing for better attention, and therefore cognitive improvement.
Surveys with adults showed that interest in a particular art correlated with actual engagement in the art. A general openness towards the arts led to an appreciation for the arts (except dance, which it seems the survey did not define well as some took it to refer to dancing that happens socially, rather than as a performance art).
Tests on children showed that motivation (by means of a reward or through knowing how they did on a task) leads to better performance on tasks, especially when the motivation is sustained for longer periods. They stated that “findings support the idea that interest in the arts allows for sustained attention, providing an increased opportunity for the training to be effective”, though the way the study specifically supports this is unclear. By their own admission, “[t]he link between arts training and motivation, though plausible, remains speculative, and needs to be tested through experimental research.” Nonetheless, the idea is that if children are open to and interested in the arts, then they are likely to be motivated to pursue that art and to sustain attention through artistic activities.
The researchers also used attention training to examine the executive attentional network (midline and lateral frontal areas) in the brain, which is engaged in self-regulation of cognition and emotion. The aim of this training, which was related to emotion and cognition regulation, was to see if it improves cognition. The exercises were designed to be interesting and motivating. EEG results showed that the training did improve the function of the executive attentional network in resolving conflict. The network in these children (6-year-olds) resembled that of adults. These children also scored better on intelligence tests.
Not all children benefited from the attention training. Genetic differences seem dependent on the form of a dopamine transmitter gene present in the child. The researchers involved in this study are therefore continuing research in genetics to determine whether certain genes lead to interest in the arts, and to greater attention.
Reflection
The ability to sustain attention is usually a characteristic teachers long to find and further develop in their students. Often, we associate attention or focus with learning, or at least the increased possibility of it. Teaching very young children has certainly posed many challenges for me and I continually seek ways to attract their attention.
Unfortunately, this article did not specify the tasks involved in the attention training given to children. The researchers assume that interest creates motivation and sustained attention, but do not explain how the latter can be improved by certain activities. In this study, the attention tasks used seem to be related to conflict tasks, though it is not very clear. In the introduction, they state that the training consisted of conflict resolution training, but their outline of the actual study conflates the details of the tasks, making it difficult to give a clear summary. They say that the conflict-resolution tasks were interesting in the way they “assume arts training to be for children with the appropriate interests.” It would have been helpful to know what caught the children’s interests.
I also noticed that this study used training exercises that were not artistic, but it nonetheless claims that artistic training likely improves attention and that this would translate to improved overall cognition. Supporting the hypothesis about the link between the arts and cognition without using artistic tasks leaves me wanting further direct explanation.
From my own experience, it does seem that musical training instills a sense of focus and perseverance that is linked to motivation. The physical and mental training involved in acquiring skills of musicianship require patience, and continued practice may train the executive attentional networks of the brain in the way any continued exercise reinforces neuronal pathways in the brain. I continue to wonder how to train these networks, though. I find that studies on attention as it relates to music frequently claim that music study improves attention but the “how” question has not been answered in any study I’ve come across. I think many teachers would benefit from knowing the types of activities that train students to focus.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Rhythm: The Essence of Music
Thaut, Michael. “The Structure of Rhythm.” In Rhythm, Music, and the Brain: Scientific Foundations and Clinical Applications, 1-17. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Summary of the Chapter:
In this Chapter, Thaut basically defines music and its elements, especially the rhythmic ones.
Thaut begins by describing music as a language-like form of communication, which is similar to speech. Both have pitch, timbre, accents, duration, intensity, and inflection; both have syntactical structure (i.e. grammar and sentence structure vs. musical form and structure); and both are affected by, and derive meaning from, a cultural context. However, there are some key differences: music has a lack of semantic or referential meaning. In music, the sounds are abstract, and do not denote or refer to specific objects, events, or concepts, as in speech/language. Also, music is neurologically processed in a different way.
Music communicates meaning in three different ways:
- Indexically (where music is associated with extramusical material)
- Ironically (where music has a likeness to extramusical events/experiences)
- Symbolically (where musical events communicate roles and values)
The character of music is temporal; it is an art form that exists in time. Music can be perceived as both sequential (for example, a moving melody line) and simultaneous (for example, a chord). Rhythm is used to create formal meaning in music, in that it binds music’s simultaneity and sequentiality in an organizational form.
Defining and describing rhythm further, there are two core aspects of temporal organization:
- Periodicity (events grouped into successive sequences of equal time/space content)
- Subdivision (similarity of internal structures among the grouped events)
Rhythm allows the perception of larger units and events in music, while imposing order. It also helps with cognition, by creating anticipation and predictability. These, in turn, create expectations and predictions that, when met or not met, give rise to emotional meaning in music.
The perception and formation of rhythm in music is based on the entrainment of oscillatory circuits in the brain. Different oscillatory circuits respond individually to different periodicities in the spectrum of complex rhythmic patterns. This set-up gives the brain more flexibility in perceiving, processing, forming, and modulating rhythms than would be possible from “stopwatch-like” mechanisms in the brain. What this means is that the human mind can accommodate time adaptations such as rubato and ritardando, without distorting the perception of an overall coherent temporal structure.
Thaut then went on to talk about specific elements of time and rhythm in music, such as “rhythmic pulses.” Rhythmic pulses act as “event markers” in the periodicity of music. Pulses divide the flow of time into regular reference points, and create a framework for the synchronization of many musical elements. Pulses establish anticipation and predictability and act as constraints that do not change throughout a sequence.
“Beats,” on the other hand, are time points of temporal positions rather than durations. They can be simultaneous with the rhythmic pulse, or differ from it. “Beat events” can contribute to the idea of slowing or rushing in contrast to the underlying, steady, and unmoving pulse. When beats come slightly after the pre-established pulse rate, for example, they can create the sense of a slowing tempo in music.
Tempo is a large-scale organizational form in music, where rhythmic pattern events (such as beats and pulses) occur within it. A fluctuating tempo does not necessarily undermine the feeling of a pulse, which is interesting to note.
In summary, the tempo is how fast or slow a piece of music is, on a large scale. The pulse acts like metronome ticks, and keeps time. Beats are events overtop of the pulse, acting as temporal points and activity in the music.
A few other key rhythmic elements in music:
- The accent (an expressive device created by changes in loudness, duration, timbre, and pitch contour). Regular groupings of accents give measures, and repeated accents give a sense of coherence to music. Accents also define musical meter.
- Meter. Meter occurs with an underlying pulse; meter actually organizes the pulse. Beat events come within the meter and pulse framework. The metric pulse acts as a framework, or reference.
Thaut then brings up the question of whether or not humans have a biological mechanism for the categorical tempo perception that also produces our sense of proportional time and tempo-keeping. Rhythm is an element that has appeared in almost all musical cultures, albeit it at different structural levels. This could suggest biological factors as underlying mechanisms for rhythmic formation and understanding.
Rhythmic and time elements in music can be used to represent spatial images, extensions and distances, and multi-dimensional forms. Rhythm affects the PERCEPTION OF TIME. Rhythm could potentially enhance brain operations through providing structure and anticipation in time, and could help learning and perception.
My Response:
I believe that sometimes music can mimic speech in sound and function. For instance, in certain African cultures there are talking drums, which use rhythms and pitches to convey a message. Music mimicking speech, or language, even occurs in the western tradition. An interesting, if perhaps unrelated, sample can be found in Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote tone poem. In this, brass chords and noises literally sound like the bleeting of sheep; so music is being used to mimic the language of animals. And music is used to express words and language especially in song. Music heightens the meaning of words by adding imagery, and extra sound and emotional quality to the words. I believe that this is a language function.
On another note, I would like to talk a bit about my own difficulties with rhythm. Often, I will record myself so that I can critique my playing, and listen to it with a critical ear. What I have consistently found is that my rhythm, or pulse, is not steady. This occurs even when I play with the aim of having a steady beat and tempo. I believe there is a distinct discrepancy between our perception of the rhythm of the music we play, and its actual rhythm and steadiness. Perhaps this comes from having so much to think about when playing music. There is intonation, muscle coordination, musicality ... the list goes on. But if our mind works in those “oscillatory circuits” that Thaut described, why is it so difficult to entrain part of our brains to play a steady rhythm, while other parts of the brain cover the other aspects of music? Or is this a personal difficulty of mine that others do not share? And if so, how do I overcome it?
I absolutely believe that any element of music can be related back to rhythm. Time and music are so intrinsically linked! Take pitch, for example. Even pitch has a rhythmic element. It is measured in Hertz, which amount to cycles per second. This means that pitch, the physical sound of music, is a series of pulses (or beat events) in a periodic pattern. Sound exists in time, pitch exists in time, timbre exists in time, and music exists in time.
Lastly, I fully agree that rhythm in music could be linked to biological and evolutionary processes in humans. I have a good friend who is a wonderful musician. He has his Master of Music degree in clarinet performance, and he is musical in every way but one: his rhythm. He can’t play a steady beat, no matter how hard he tries. The process of counting seems intrinsically hard for him, in a way that is much more extreme than my own case of discrepancy between what I thought I played, and how it actually sounded. This leads me to believe that there is something biologically different about my friend, and this makes the steady pulse aspect of music very difficult for him. For my friend, his own perception of a steady pulse is very different from that of most other musicians.
Time in music, or even time perception in music, is a wonderful tool for expression. When “beat events” do not match up with the underlying pulse, a listener gets the impression that time is speeding up or slowing down. In a largo movement, such as in a Mahler symphony, time can seem to be suspended; nothing moves. In a vivace movement, such as in the overture to Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, time can seem like it’s flying by at an unreal pace. Music is, in essence, a means of manipulating the perception of time.
Summary of the Chapter:
In this Chapter, Thaut basically defines music and its elements, especially the rhythmic ones.
Thaut begins by describing music as a language-like form of communication, which is similar to speech. Both have pitch, timbre, accents, duration, intensity, and inflection; both have syntactical structure (i.e. grammar and sentence structure vs. musical form and structure); and both are affected by, and derive meaning from, a cultural context. However, there are some key differences: music has a lack of semantic or referential meaning. In music, the sounds are abstract, and do not denote or refer to specific objects, events, or concepts, as in speech/language. Also, music is neurologically processed in a different way.
Music communicates meaning in three different ways:
- Indexically (where music is associated with extramusical material)
- Ironically (where music has a likeness to extramusical events/experiences)
- Symbolically (where musical events communicate roles and values)
The character of music is temporal; it is an art form that exists in time. Music can be perceived as both sequential (for example, a moving melody line) and simultaneous (for example, a chord). Rhythm is used to create formal meaning in music, in that it binds music’s simultaneity and sequentiality in an organizational form.
Defining and describing rhythm further, there are two core aspects of temporal organization:
- Periodicity (events grouped into successive sequences of equal time/space content)
- Subdivision (similarity of internal structures among the grouped events)
Rhythm allows the perception of larger units and events in music, while imposing order. It also helps with cognition, by creating anticipation and predictability. These, in turn, create expectations and predictions that, when met or not met, give rise to emotional meaning in music.
The perception and formation of rhythm in music is based on the entrainment of oscillatory circuits in the brain. Different oscillatory circuits respond individually to different periodicities in the spectrum of complex rhythmic patterns. This set-up gives the brain more flexibility in perceiving, processing, forming, and modulating rhythms than would be possible from “stopwatch-like” mechanisms in the brain. What this means is that the human mind can accommodate time adaptations such as rubato and ritardando, without distorting the perception of an overall coherent temporal structure.
Thaut then went on to talk about specific elements of time and rhythm in music, such as “rhythmic pulses.” Rhythmic pulses act as “event markers” in the periodicity of music. Pulses divide the flow of time into regular reference points, and create a framework for the synchronization of many musical elements. Pulses establish anticipation and predictability and act as constraints that do not change throughout a sequence.
“Beats,” on the other hand, are time points of temporal positions rather than durations. They can be simultaneous with the rhythmic pulse, or differ from it. “Beat events” can contribute to the idea of slowing or rushing in contrast to the underlying, steady, and unmoving pulse. When beats come slightly after the pre-established pulse rate, for example, they can create the sense of a slowing tempo in music.
Tempo is a large-scale organizational form in music, where rhythmic pattern events (such as beats and pulses) occur within it. A fluctuating tempo does not necessarily undermine the feeling of a pulse, which is interesting to note.
In summary, the tempo is how fast or slow a piece of music is, on a large scale. The pulse acts like metronome ticks, and keeps time. Beats are events overtop of the pulse, acting as temporal points and activity in the music.
A few other key rhythmic elements in music:
- The accent (an expressive device created by changes in loudness, duration, timbre, and pitch contour). Regular groupings of accents give measures, and repeated accents give a sense of coherence to music. Accents also define musical meter.
- Meter. Meter occurs with an underlying pulse; meter actually organizes the pulse. Beat events come within the meter and pulse framework. The metric pulse acts as a framework, or reference.
Thaut then brings up the question of whether or not humans have a biological mechanism for the categorical tempo perception that also produces our sense of proportional time and tempo-keeping. Rhythm is an element that has appeared in almost all musical cultures, albeit it at different structural levels. This could suggest biological factors as underlying mechanisms for rhythmic formation and understanding.
Rhythmic and time elements in music can be used to represent spatial images, extensions and distances, and multi-dimensional forms. Rhythm affects the PERCEPTION OF TIME. Rhythm could potentially enhance brain operations through providing structure and anticipation in time, and could help learning and perception.
My Response:
I believe that sometimes music can mimic speech in sound and function. For instance, in certain African cultures there are talking drums, which use rhythms and pitches to convey a message. Music mimicking speech, or language, even occurs in the western tradition. An interesting, if perhaps unrelated, sample can be found in Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote tone poem. In this, brass chords and noises literally sound like the bleeting of sheep; so music is being used to mimic the language of animals. And music is used to express words and language especially in song. Music heightens the meaning of words by adding imagery, and extra sound and emotional quality to the words. I believe that this is a language function.
On another note, I would like to talk a bit about my own difficulties with rhythm. Often, I will record myself so that I can critique my playing, and listen to it with a critical ear. What I have consistently found is that my rhythm, or pulse, is not steady. This occurs even when I play with the aim of having a steady beat and tempo. I believe there is a distinct discrepancy between our perception of the rhythm of the music we play, and its actual rhythm and steadiness. Perhaps this comes from having so much to think about when playing music. There is intonation, muscle coordination, musicality ... the list goes on. But if our mind works in those “oscillatory circuits” that Thaut described, why is it so difficult to entrain part of our brains to play a steady rhythm, while other parts of the brain cover the other aspects of music? Or is this a personal difficulty of mine that others do not share? And if so, how do I overcome it?
I absolutely believe that any element of music can be related back to rhythm. Time and music are so intrinsically linked! Take pitch, for example. Even pitch has a rhythmic element. It is measured in Hertz, which amount to cycles per second. This means that pitch, the physical sound of music, is a series of pulses (or beat events) in a periodic pattern. Sound exists in time, pitch exists in time, timbre exists in time, and music exists in time.
Lastly, I fully agree that rhythm in music could be linked to biological and evolutionary processes in humans. I have a good friend who is a wonderful musician. He has his Master of Music degree in clarinet performance, and he is musical in every way but one: his rhythm. He can’t play a steady beat, no matter how hard he tries. The process of counting seems intrinsically hard for him, in a way that is much more extreme than my own case of discrepancy between what I thought I played, and how it actually sounded. This leads me to believe that there is something biologically different about my friend, and this makes the steady pulse aspect of music very difficult for him. For my friend, his own perception of a steady pulse is very different from that of most other musicians.
Time in music, or even time perception in music, is a wonderful tool for expression. When “beat events” do not match up with the underlying pulse, a listener gets the impression that time is speeding up or slowing down. In a largo movement, such as in a Mahler symphony, time can seem to be suspended; nothing moves. In a vivace movement, such as in the overture to Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, time can seem like it’s flying by at an unreal pace. Music is, in essence, a means of manipulating the perception of time.
A Brief Summary of an Experiment Dealing with Autism, Emotion, and SCRs.
Khalfa, Stephanie and Peretz, Isabelle. “Atypical Emotional Judgments and Skin Conductance Responses to Music and Language in Autism.” In Autism Research Advances, edited by L.B. Zhao, 101-119. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2007.
General Summary:
This was a really interesting experiment, designed to further study and characterize emotional processing in autism by monitoring responses to music samples (small clips) and verbal samples (short and recorded spoken sentences). The process was divided into two different and somewhat separate experiments. In each one, emotion recognition and feeling (the actual, automatic and physiological responses generated by each participant) were tested and recorded. It is certainly worth noting that to test the feeling aspect, skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded; this involved measuring the rapid fluctuations in electrodermal activity of the sweat glands. During some types of emotional responses, acetylcholine is released by the sympathetic nervous system, causing these electrical fluctuations in the skin, and they can be easily detected. In this way, a person’s arousal level (stimulated vs. relaxed) and valence perception (pleasant vs. unpleasant) can be physically shown and recorded. [Note: The researchers made specific mention of the brain’s amygdala and its role in SCRs. Amygdala activity results in a positive SCR.] The emotion recognition was measured by having each participant label samples as “scary,” “happy,” “sad,” or “peaceful,” and then rating each judgment on a 10-point scale.
Experiment 1. SCRs and Emotional Evaluation of Music, Summary:
For this study, 9 participants classed as “high-functioning autistic,” with IQs greater than 89, and who were older than 16, made up the “clinical” group. The “control” group was made up of 13 individuals who were not autistic, and had similar IQ averages and ages.
The musical clips, or stimuli, were drawn from 7-second clips of western classical music. There were 5 separate samples from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and early 20th-century periods. Each sample in its original form was labelled “consonant,” and each was altered by semi-tones in key pitches to create the “dissonant” version. Then each consonant and dissonant clip was sped up and slowed down, and half were played in minor and half were played in major mode, creating happy consonant (original form, fast, major), happy dissonant (dissonant form, fast, major), sad consonant (original form, slow, minor) and sad dissonant (dissonant form, slow, minor) categories.
Each participant evaluated arousal (stimulation) and valence (pleasantness) on a 10-point scale (1= calm or 1=unpleasant; 10=stimulating or 10=pleasant), where arousal was shown in the sad/happy aspect of each clip, and valence was shown in the dissonant/consonant aspect. While listening to the samples, each participant had his skin conductance recorded.
The Results. The control group judged consonant excerpts as more pleasant than the clinical group, but both judged dissonant as the same degree of unpleasant. Both groups judged happy (fast) excerpts as more stimulating than the sad, and dissonant as more stimulating than the consonant. Autistic individuals exhibited larger SCR amplitudes on average, especially for dissonant and “sad” music.
ONLY the control group exhibited variations in SCR in relation to the music: happy/consonant caused larger SCRs; happy dissonant and sad consonant caused smaller SCRs. In the clinical group, all four “emotion” categories elicited similar SCR levels. Within the autistic group, there were shown to be “high-responders,” and “normal responders.” “Normal Responders” exhibited similar SCR responses as the control group.
My Response, Experiment 1:
I would really like to have had a listing of exactly what musical samples the experimenters used. The “consonant” ones could very well have included some chords that could be perceived as dissonant, thus muddying the conscious recognition aspect of the valence measurements. This would have been especially true for some of the highly chromatic pieces of the Romantic era, and many 20th-century pieces.
This study doesn’t mention the cultural background of each participant. The “musical categories” (happy, sad, consonant, dissonant, etc.) were all assumed to be understood by the participants, i.e. each was assumed to only be sensitive to a western musical interpretation. If participants were more familiar with eastern music styles, their perception of the samples could have been different than waht would have been expected, causing a skew in the results.
If autistic participants had musical training, or attended many concerts (especially classical), they may have been able to recognize the intended feeling of each sample, without actually feeling or understanding the emotions of the music.
Would SCR recording pick up “sweat signals” from participants who felt uneasy, or nervous, in the setting and situation? I know that when I am nervous, I sometimes get sweaty palms. Would something like this have skewed results? And could the recorded emotion have come from other sources rather than the music, for example, nerves? With these variables in mind, how accurate was the SCR recording?
The control and clinical groups were very small. I would be more convinced of the data comparisons if this had been a more extensive study, involving more people.
In the judging of “happy” vs. “sad” as “stimulating” vs. “unstimulating”: I think that perhaps the stimulation factor could have come from the speed of the musical clip, and not necessarily its “happy” or “sad” emotional content; the labelling of the musical clips as stimulating or not may have had nothing to do with the emotional content/quality of the music.
7-second clips are not really a good example of music that could be used to elicit emotion, in my opinion; the clips used were only sound samples. I believe that complex emotions are elicited more from actual musical pieces, as a whole, where the music is developed and changed over time, in form and harmony especially.
I think the small number in the clinical group would not necessarily represent a whole population of autistic people. As a result, dividing them into “normal and high responders” may have been erroneous. Perhaps autistic individuals exhibit a range of autonomic responses, just like the general population, and thus should not be labelled as 2 separate and distinct groups.
Experiment 2: Emotional Judgments for Music and Language, Summary.
In this experiment, there were 18 individuals in the clinical (autistic) group and 19 individuals in the control group. 28 short (7-second) musical excerpts, written expressly for this experiment, were played; each was meant to represent sadness, happiness, fear, or peacefulness. There were 24 verbal stimuli, as well. These involved short, spoken, and recorded sentences designed to express one of the 4 emotions mentioned. For each sample (musical and verbal) the participants were asked to choose from the 4 emotions, and to assess arousal and valence on the 10-point scale.
The results from this experiment showed some interesting things. Participants judged fear and sadness as unpleasant in the verbal stimuli, but not in the musical stimuli. Also, participants judged “musical sadness” as more relaxing than “verbal sadness.” “Happiness” in music was shown to be more stimulating than “fear,” but this difference was not seen in the “happy” vs. “fearful” language samples. Overall, the results failed to show a difference between how autistic and “normal” participants made emotional judgments, in music or language.
In terms of emotional recognition, the researchers noted that “normal” participants could better recognize verbal sadness. Both groups had difficultly recognizing fear, sadness, and peacefulness in music, but could recognize happiness. There was no significant difference between how the groups identified musical emotions.
Emotions in verbal stimuli (language) were better recognized than emotions in music, in the control group. Some emotions in the verbal stimuli were deemed unpleasant, while no emotions conveyed by music were deemed as such. There was no evidence for a lack of emotion recognition in individuals with high-functioning autism, in terms of aural musical and verbal samples. However, autistic individuals showed smaller valance labelling of musical samples (i.e. labelled them less pleasant or unpleasant, on average) than the control group. This may have indicated that autistic individuals lack the ability to recognize subtle emotional aspects.
My Response, Experiment 2:
The musical excerpts that were used in this experiment were, essentially, “canned” music. They only involved the piano timbre and sound, and were very short. How much emotion could possibly be conveyed in 7 seconds? How would the results have differed if the samples were more extensive, and drawn from the symphonic repertoire? Would orchestration have caused a difference in the perception of emotion? Would familiarity or unfamiliarity with the music cause any differences in the perception of its underlying emotion? Also, would it have been useful to use some musical samples that involved words, to combine the musical and verbal stimuli? What would this have shown?
What would have been shown, especially with the musical samples, if participants had not been given the 4 emotions to choose from, but had to pick their own label? How would the autistic individuals have compared to the control group? Would this have gotten ride of any pre-conceived cultural notions, such as equating major-mode and fast music with “happiness”?
How would cultural pre-conceptions have affected the emotion recognition in autism? Are we taught to hear music a certain way? Can emotion recognition in music be learned in the same way that an autistic individual learns what a smile means?
General Summary:
This was a really interesting experiment, designed to further study and characterize emotional processing in autism by monitoring responses to music samples (small clips) and verbal samples (short and recorded spoken sentences). The process was divided into two different and somewhat separate experiments. In each one, emotion recognition and feeling (the actual, automatic and physiological responses generated by each participant) were tested and recorded. It is certainly worth noting that to test the feeling aspect, skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded; this involved measuring the rapid fluctuations in electrodermal activity of the sweat glands. During some types of emotional responses, acetylcholine is released by the sympathetic nervous system, causing these electrical fluctuations in the skin, and they can be easily detected. In this way, a person’s arousal level (stimulated vs. relaxed) and valence perception (pleasant vs. unpleasant) can be physically shown and recorded. [Note: The researchers made specific mention of the brain’s amygdala and its role in SCRs. Amygdala activity results in a positive SCR.] The emotion recognition was measured by having each participant label samples as “scary,” “happy,” “sad,” or “peaceful,” and then rating each judgment on a 10-point scale.
Experiment 1. SCRs and Emotional Evaluation of Music, Summary:
For this study, 9 participants classed as “high-functioning autistic,” with IQs greater than 89, and who were older than 16, made up the “clinical” group. The “control” group was made up of 13 individuals who were not autistic, and had similar IQ averages and ages.
The musical clips, or stimuli, were drawn from 7-second clips of western classical music. There were 5 separate samples from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and early 20th-century periods. Each sample in its original form was labelled “consonant,” and each was altered by semi-tones in key pitches to create the “dissonant” version. Then each consonant and dissonant clip was sped up and slowed down, and half were played in minor and half were played in major mode, creating happy consonant (original form, fast, major), happy dissonant (dissonant form, fast, major), sad consonant (original form, slow, minor) and sad dissonant (dissonant form, slow, minor) categories.
Each participant evaluated arousal (stimulation) and valence (pleasantness) on a 10-point scale (1= calm or 1=unpleasant; 10=stimulating or 10=pleasant), where arousal was shown in the sad/happy aspect of each clip, and valence was shown in the dissonant/consonant aspect. While listening to the samples, each participant had his skin conductance recorded.
The Results. The control group judged consonant excerpts as more pleasant than the clinical group, but both judged dissonant as the same degree of unpleasant. Both groups judged happy (fast) excerpts as more stimulating than the sad, and dissonant as more stimulating than the consonant. Autistic individuals exhibited larger SCR amplitudes on average, especially for dissonant and “sad” music.
ONLY the control group exhibited variations in SCR in relation to the music: happy/consonant caused larger SCRs; happy dissonant and sad consonant caused smaller SCRs. In the clinical group, all four “emotion” categories elicited similar SCR levels. Within the autistic group, there were shown to be “high-responders,” and “normal responders.” “Normal Responders” exhibited similar SCR responses as the control group.
My Response, Experiment 1:
I would really like to have had a listing of exactly what musical samples the experimenters used. The “consonant” ones could very well have included some chords that could be perceived as dissonant, thus muddying the conscious recognition aspect of the valence measurements. This would have been especially true for some of the highly chromatic pieces of the Romantic era, and many 20th-century pieces.
This study doesn’t mention the cultural background of each participant. The “musical categories” (happy, sad, consonant, dissonant, etc.) were all assumed to be understood by the participants, i.e. each was assumed to only be sensitive to a western musical interpretation. If participants were more familiar with eastern music styles, their perception of the samples could have been different than waht would have been expected, causing a skew in the results.
If autistic participants had musical training, or attended many concerts (especially classical), they may have been able to recognize the intended feeling of each sample, without actually feeling or understanding the emotions of the music.
Would SCR recording pick up “sweat signals” from participants who felt uneasy, or nervous, in the setting and situation? I know that when I am nervous, I sometimes get sweaty palms. Would something like this have skewed results? And could the recorded emotion have come from other sources rather than the music, for example, nerves? With these variables in mind, how accurate was the SCR recording?
The control and clinical groups were very small. I would be more convinced of the data comparisons if this had been a more extensive study, involving more people.
In the judging of “happy” vs. “sad” as “stimulating” vs. “unstimulating”: I think that perhaps the stimulation factor could have come from the speed of the musical clip, and not necessarily its “happy” or “sad” emotional content; the labelling of the musical clips as stimulating or not may have had nothing to do with the emotional content/quality of the music.
7-second clips are not really a good example of music that could be used to elicit emotion, in my opinion; the clips used were only sound samples. I believe that complex emotions are elicited more from actual musical pieces, as a whole, where the music is developed and changed over time, in form and harmony especially.
I think the small number in the clinical group would not necessarily represent a whole population of autistic people. As a result, dividing them into “normal and high responders” may have been erroneous. Perhaps autistic individuals exhibit a range of autonomic responses, just like the general population, and thus should not be labelled as 2 separate and distinct groups.
Experiment 2: Emotional Judgments for Music and Language, Summary.
In this experiment, there were 18 individuals in the clinical (autistic) group and 19 individuals in the control group. 28 short (7-second) musical excerpts, written expressly for this experiment, were played; each was meant to represent sadness, happiness, fear, or peacefulness. There were 24 verbal stimuli, as well. These involved short, spoken, and recorded sentences designed to express one of the 4 emotions mentioned. For each sample (musical and verbal) the participants were asked to choose from the 4 emotions, and to assess arousal and valence on the 10-point scale.
The results from this experiment showed some interesting things. Participants judged fear and sadness as unpleasant in the verbal stimuli, but not in the musical stimuli. Also, participants judged “musical sadness” as more relaxing than “verbal sadness.” “Happiness” in music was shown to be more stimulating than “fear,” but this difference was not seen in the “happy” vs. “fearful” language samples. Overall, the results failed to show a difference between how autistic and “normal” participants made emotional judgments, in music or language.
In terms of emotional recognition, the researchers noted that “normal” participants could better recognize verbal sadness. Both groups had difficultly recognizing fear, sadness, and peacefulness in music, but could recognize happiness. There was no significant difference between how the groups identified musical emotions.
Emotions in verbal stimuli (language) were better recognized than emotions in music, in the control group. Some emotions in the verbal stimuli were deemed unpleasant, while no emotions conveyed by music were deemed as such. There was no evidence for a lack of emotion recognition in individuals with high-functioning autism, in terms of aural musical and verbal samples. However, autistic individuals showed smaller valance labelling of musical samples (i.e. labelled them less pleasant or unpleasant, on average) than the control group. This may have indicated that autistic individuals lack the ability to recognize subtle emotional aspects.
My Response, Experiment 2:
The musical excerpts that were used in this experiment were, essentially, “canned” music. They only involved the piano timbre and sound, and were very short. How much emotion could possibly be conveyed in 7 seconds? How would the results have differed if the samples were more extensive, and drawn from the symphonic repertoire? Would orchestration have caused a difference in the perception of emotion? Would familiarity or unfamiliarity with the music cause any differences in the perception of its underlying emotion? Also, would it have been useful to use some musical samples that involved words, to combine the musical and verbal stimuli? What would this have shown?
What would have been shown, especially with the musical samples, if participants had not been given the 4 emotions to choose from, but had to pick their own label? How would the autistic individuals have compared to the control group? Would this have gotten ride of any pre-conceived cultural notions, such as equating major-mode and fast music with “happiness”?
How would cultural pre-conceptions have affected the emotion recognition in autism? Are we taught to hear music a certain way? Can emotion recognition in music be learned in the same way that an autistic individual learns what a smile means?
Monday, November 30, 2009
How what we see affects what we hear: Visual perception of music performance
Reference: Thompson, W. F., Graham, P., and Russo, F. A. (2005) “Seeing music performance: Visual influences on perception and experience”, Semiotica 156: 177-201.
Summary
This long and detailed article addresses a very important and interesting aspect of music performance-its visual dimensions. It discusses the extent to which these aspects contribute to the communication between performer and a listener. The authors maintain that there are several levels at which facial expressions and gestures might affect our perception of music. First, there is basic level at which listeners’ attention is directed to critical acoustic information at a certain moment of time. The authors argue that such cues can increase musical intelligibility. They draw an analogy referring to the face of a speaker, that when seen may increase the intelligibility of speech in a noisy environment. Then there is a perceptual level, at which visual cues are given to the listener to indicate important melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic events. The authors suggest that at this level, facial expressions and gestures are intentionally introduced by performers as a way of sharing with listeners their understanding of the significance of such events, as well as emphasizing the musical activity as a shared experience between performer and listener. Finally, the authors observe that visual information is “highly effective at conveying persona and attitude” (p. 204), arguing that facial expressions and other bodily gestures help performer to personalize the music, creating the feeling of reciprocal human interaction during the performance. Next, the authors discuss a variety of different media technologies, which can be used to experience music performance, and argue that each technological medium provides listener with different experience. They put forward a concept of music as “multimedially performed and multimodally experienced” (p. 205), and present empirical findings that appear to support this model. Two case studies are presented in order to discuss the relationship between visual and aural aspects of performance. The authors thoroughly examine the use of facial expression, body movement, and gesture in two filmed performances, one of B. B. King (playing Blues Boys Tune), and another by Judy Garland (singing Just in Time). Interestingly, the analysis of these samples is based on structured interviews by a trained musicologist of two other musicologists. The authors observe that the wide range of potential effects that visual information can have on our perception of music suggests the necessity of further and more systematic research in this area. Accordingly, they designed five experiments to assess visual influences on two types of musical judgments. In three experiments, they investigated visual influences on structural interpretations of music and in two experiments - visual influences on emotional interpretations of music. The experiments confirmed that visual characteristics of performance influence music experience at a perceptual and an emotional level. In conclusion, the authors observe that, during performance, listeners incorporate visual and aural aspects to form an integrated audio-visual mental representation of music.
Response
In my opinion, visual dimension is one of the most interesting and significant characteristics of music performance. In this regard, the article is definitely thought provoking. The authors suggest that these aspects are greatly overlooked by most psychological research, which consider them as unessential to the music. This may be true concerning systematic scientific investigation; however, it is extremely rare that visual aspects of performance are disregarded by a common listener (especially by those with limited musical training). People are extremely attentive to these details; they watch musicians closely, and, at times, it appears that these aspects are, perhaps, of even greater importance for them than the music itself. When Evgeny Kissin toured in Israel, my mother-in-law (who is a professional pianist, performer and teacher with lots of experience) attended one of his performances with a friend of hers (who has no formal training in music). After the concert, my mother-in-law, agitated and extremely excited, conducted a thorough analysis of the performance of this, perhaps one of the greatest pianists of all time, focusing in particular on his interpretation, phrasing, dynamics and other related specific details. The friend listened attentively and then expressed her curiosity regarding the reason behind my mother-in-law decision to buy more expensive tickets in the second row. My mother-in-law replied that she wanted to see the pianist’s hands, after which the friend thoughtfully observed, “But what ugly faces and dreadful grimaces he makes all the time!” I think this observation is not uncommon. Moreover, it is very characteristic. The authors of the article argue that listeners form an integrated audio-visual image of music. If this were correct, what kind of mental representation of the music the aforementioned friend would have? Will the music that she just listened to be always associated for her with the “ugly” and contorted countenance of the performer?
Then, perhaps, this could be further subdivided into two related questions. Do the twisted features or body movements of performer bear any interpretational connotations? Do these movements constitute an intentional message of a performer to a listener? Does it convey or elucidate musical meaning? Or, it’s just an involuntary muscle movement, correlated with the level of difficulty of a certain passage, or associated with the intensity of performers’ emotional involvement? And, another question, how are these aspects perceived by listener. Do listeners, indeed, combine visual and audio aspects of performance to create an integrated image of music, or visual characteristics simply distract them from the music? It appears that the latter could be true.
Obviously, there is a great disparity between professional musician’s approach to a listening process and that of a person with no formal music training. While musicians would typically focus on the specific music qualities of performance, disregarding other attributes, non-musicians would be greatly amused and distracted by other characteristics, including visual aspects of performance. This is especially the case with teenagers and young kids. When I attempt to discuss with them the music performances they attend, it appears that visual aspects of performance make more profound and enduring impression on them, than any specific musical characteristics.
There is also another issue, which I think worth mentioning in this context. It seems that visual aspects of performance, including facial expressions, gestures, and body movements are culturally determined. For instance, I know that in Russia, such movements were not encouraged. It was thought that a musical message should be transmitted using specific musical means of expression, such as dynamics, phrasing, tempos, articulation, and so on, rather than by means of the excessive and disproportionate visual indications.
In short, this is an interesting subject to discuss, and I think it deserves to be further investigated.
Here is a couple of links to video recordings of the music performances. This is amazing how differently these artists express themselves musically and visually. Is it culture? Differences in professional training? Fashion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNCeYKfAOZI
David Oistrakh plays Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFaq9kTlcaY&feature=fvw
Jascha Heifetz plays the same Concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZgpNXo4iuI&feature=related
Itzhak Perlman plays Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd9JS07bq-s
Evgeny Kissin plays Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M7M4UoqBpA
Van Cliburn plays the same Concerto
Summary
This long and detailed article addresses a very important and interesting aspect of music performance-its visual dimensions. It discusses the extent to which these aspects contribute to the communication between performer and a listener. The authors maintain that there are several levels at which facial expressions and gestures might affect our perception of music. First, there is basic level at which listeners’ attention is directed to critical acoustic information at a certain moment of time. The authors argue that such cues can increase musical intelligibility. They draw an analogy referring to the face of a speaker, that when seen may increase the intelligibility of speech in a noisy environment. Then there is a perceptual level, at which visual cues are given to the listener to indicate important melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic events. The authors suggest that at this level, facial expressions and gestures are intentionally introduced by performers as a way of sharing with listeners their understanding of the significance of such events, as well as emphasizing the musical activity as a shared experience between performer and listener. Finally, the authors observe that visual information is “highly effective at conveying persona and attitude” (p. 204), arguing that facial expressions and other bodily gestures help performer to personalize the music, creating the feeling of reciprocal human interaction during the performance. Next, the authors discuss a variety of different media technologies, which can be used to experience music performance, and argue that each technological medium provides listener with different experience. They put forward a concept of music as “multimedially performed and multimodally experienced” (p. 205), and present empirical findings that appear to support this model. Two case studies are presented in order to discuss the relationship between visual and aural aspects of performance. The authors thoroughly examine the use of facial expression, body movement, and gesture in two filmed performances, one of B. B. King (playing Blues Boys Tune), and another by Judy Garland (singing Just in Time). Interestingly, the analysis of these samples is based on structured interviews by a trained musicologist of two other musicologists. The authors observe that the wide range of potential effects that visual information can have on our perception of music suggests the necessity of further and more systematic research in this area. Accordingly, they designed five experiments to assess visual influences on two types of musical judgments. In three experiments, they investigated visual influences on structural interpretations of music and in two experiments - visual influences on emotional interpretations of music. The experiments confirmed that visual characteristics of performance influence music experience at a perceptual and an emotional level. In conclusion, the authors observe that, during performance, listeners incorporate visual and aural aspects to form an integrated audio-visual mental representation of music.
Response
In my opinion, visual dimension is one of the most interesting and significant characteristics of music performance. In this regard, the article is definitely thought provoking. The authors suggest that these aspects are greatly overlooked by most psychological research, which consider them as unessential to the music. This may be true concerning systematic scientific investigation; however, it is extremely rare that visual aspects of performance are disregarded by a common listener (especially by those with limited musical training). People are extremely attentive to these details; they watch musicians closely, and, at times, it appears that these aspects are, perhaps, of even greater importance for them than the music itself. When Evgeny Kissin toured in Israel, my mother-in-law (who is a professional pianist, performer and teacher with lots of experience) attended one of his performances with a friend of hers (who has no formal training in music). After the concert, my mother-in-law, agitated and extremely excited, conducted a thorough analysis of the performance of this, perhaps one of the greatest pianists of all time, focusing in particular on his interpretation, phrasing, dynamics and other related specific details. The friend listened attentively and then expressed her curiosity regarding the reason behind my mother-in-law decision to buy more expensive tickets in the second row. My mother-in-law replied that she wanted to see the pianist’s hands, after which the friend thoughtfully observed, “But what ugly faces and dreadful grimaces he makes all the time!” I think this observation is not uncommon. Moreover, it is very characteristic. The authors of the article argue that listeners form an integrated audio-visual image of music. If this were correct, what kind of mental representation of the music the aforementioned friend would have? Will the music that she just listened to be always associated for her with the “ugly” and contorted countenance of the performer?
Then, perhaps, this could be further subdivided into two related questions. Do the twisted features or body movements of performer bear any interpretational connotations? Do these movements constitute an intentional message of a performer to a listener? Does it convey or elucidate musical meaning? Or, it’s just an involuntary muscle movement, correlated with the level of difficulty of a certain passage, or associated with the intensity of performers’ emotional involvement? And, another question, how are these aspects perceived by listener. Do listeners, indeed, combine visual and audio aspects of performance to create an integrated image of music, or visual characteristics simply distract them from the music? It appears that the latter could be true.
Obviously, there is a great disparity between professional musician’s approach to a listening process and that of a person with no formal music training. While musicians would typically focus on the specific music qualities of performance, disregarding other attributes, non-musicians would be greatly amused and distracted by other characteristics, including visual aspects of performance. This is especially the case with teenagers and young kids. When I attempt to discuss with them the music performances they attend, it appears that visual aspects of performance make more profound and enduring impression on them, than any specific musical characteristics.
There is also another issue, which I think worth mentioning in this context. It seems that visual aspects of performance, including facial expressions, gestures, and body movements are culturally determined. For instance, I know that in Russia, such movements were not encouraged. It was thought that a musical message should be transmitted using specific musical means of expression, such as dynamics, phrasing, tempos, articulation, and so on, rather than by means of the excessive and disproportionate visual indications.
In short, this is an interesting subject to discuss, and I think it deserves to be further investigated.
Here is a couple of links to video recordings of the music performances. This is amazing how differently these artists express themselves musically and visually. Is it culture? Differences in professional training? Fashion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNCeYKfAOZI
David Oistrakh plays Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFaq9kTlcaY&feature=fvw
Jascha Heifetz plays the same Concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZgpNXo4iuI&feature=related
Itzhak Perlman plays Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd9JS07bq-s
Evgeny Kissin plays Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M7M4UoqBpA
Van Cliburn plays the same Concerto
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