relationship between sounds
Tales from Genesis
Genesis experienced three periods in its development, which are well traced in their texts. My favorite of them is the second, which lasted four years between the departure of Peter Gabriel and the aging of Phil Collins into an influential figure in the creative process of the group. Gabriel wrote verbose, mythological lyrics, diversified, but similar in its complexity. With all my love for The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, I cannot boast that I understand the plot of this suite, and for some reason I don’t strive for it. Perhaps his lyrics still lack some necessary element. At least we know that the audience did not relate favorably to his stories told during the hall performances. Continue reading
Brain “under the jazz”
When jazz musicians improvise, areas that are responsible for self-censorship and inhibition of nerve impulses are turned off in their brain, and instead, areas that open the way for self-expression are turned on.
A companion study at Johns Hopkins University, which was attended by volunteer musicians from the Peabody Institute, and which used the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) method, shed light on the mechanism of creative improvisation that artists use in everyday life.
Jazz musicians, improvising, create their own unique riffs by turning off braking and turning on creativity.
Scientists from the Medical University, National Institute of Deafness speak about their interest in a possible neurological basis of a state close to the state of trance, into which jazzmen fall, starting spontaneous improvisations. Continue reading
Ode to joy or sorrow?
Researchers study not only the processing by the brain of the “acoustic” component of music, but also the processes by which it affects people emotionally. In one of these works, it was shown that physical reactions to music (in the form of goosebumps, tears, laughter, etc.) occur in 80% of adults. According to a survey conducted in 1995 by Jaak Panksepp of the University of Bowling Green, 70% of several hundred respondents said that they enjoy music, “because it creates emotions and feelings.”
Until recently, the mechanisms of such reactions remained a mystery to scientists. However, a study of a patient suffering from bilateral damage to the temporal lobes, affecting the auditory cortex, prompted an answer to the question that tormented us. The patient has preserved normal intelligence and general memory, there are no difficulties with language and speech. Continue reading
