The Establishment of Equal Temperament (original) (raw)
The Universe of Music: Introduction to Music Psychology and Music Philosophy
In this essay I approach the mysterious art of music from several perspectives. As a classical pianist, I think about music as an immensely powerful way of communication. As a music teacher, I am interested in explaining tangibles of music in the clearest terms possible. And as a scholar in the cognitive sciences, I believe that the psychology of music can advance our understanding of the human mind.
Journal of Musicology, 2018
This essay argues that musicological interpretations of Immanuel Kant’s music aesthetics tend to misread his stance as a defense of artistic formalism and autonomy—traits that, although present in his account of music, in fact reinforce his peculiarly low estimate of music’s value among the fine arts. Kant's position and its subsequent influence can be grasped more securely by analyzing his dichotomy between “free” and “dependent” beauty. Through an exploration of this opposition’s echoes and applications in the thought of three “Kantian” music critics and aestheticians in the two decades after the appearance of the Critique of Judgement—J. F. Reichardt, an anonymous series of articles commonly attributed to J. K. F. Triest, and C. F. Michaelis—this essay argues that Kantian aesthetics as applied in practice involved close attention to the impact of genre, style, function, and compositional aims on the relevant standards of judgment for an individual musical work. The result was...
Music's "design features" - musical motivation, musical pulse, musical pitch.
Musicae Scientiae, 2009
This paper focuses on the question of what music is, attempting to describe those features of music that generically distinguish it from other forms of animal and human communication -music's "design features". The author suggests that music is generically inspired by musical motivation -an intrinsic motivation to share convergent intersubjective endstates -and is universally identifiable by the presence of musical pulse -a maintained and volitionally controlled attentional pulse -and/or musical pitch -a system for maintaining certain relationships between pitches. As such music's design features are viewed as providing an interpersonal framework for synchronous and group affective interaction. The implications of this approach to an evolutionary perspective on music and on arguments of the primary evolutionary functionality of musical abilities in human evolution are discussed.
The evolution of music: theories, definitions and the nature of the evidence
"This chapter, within Trevarthen and Malloch's 'Communicative Musicality' volume, discusses approaches to the origins of music, from an evolutionary point of view, the evidence, and its role in human communication. 'Communicative Musicality' explores the intrinsic musical nature of human interaction. The theory of communicative musicality was developed from groundbreaking studies showing how in mother/infant communication there exist noticeable patterns of timing, pulse, voice timbre, and gesture. Without intending to, the exchange between a mother and her infant follow many of the rules of musical performance, including rhythm and timing. This is the first book to be devoted to this topic. In a collection of cutting-edge chapters, encompassing brain science, human evolution, psychology, acoustics and music performance, it focuses on the rhythm and sympathy of musical expression in human communication from infancy. It demonstrates how speaking and moving in rhythmic musical ways is the essential foundation for all forms of communication, even the most refined and technically elaborated, just as it is for parenting, good teaching, creative work in the arts, and therapy to help handicapped or emotionally distressed persons. A landmark in the literature, 'Communicative Musicality' is a valuable text for all those in the fields of developmental, educational, and music psychology, as well as those in the field of music therapy. "
On the origins of music: A new theory
It is commonly argued that music originated in human evolution as an adaptation to selective pressures. In this paper we present an alternative account in which music originated from a more general adaptation known as a Theory of Mind (ToM). ToM allows an individual to recognise the mental and emotional state of conspecifics, and is pivotal in the cultural transmission of knowledge. We propose that a specific form of ToM, Affective Engagement, provides the foundation for the emergence of music. Underpinned by the mirror neuron system of empathy and imitation, music achieves engagement by drawing from pre-existing functions across multiple modalities. As a multimodal phenomenon, music generates an emotional experience through the broadened activation of channels that are to be empathically matched by the audio-visual mirror neuron system.
ONLINE JOURNAL OF MUSIC SCIENCE, 2023
The article discusses the relationship between sound frequencies, music, and human perception, focusing on the debate surrounding the tuning standard used in music. The paper begins by questioning the metaphysical and religious implications of sound as a creative force. It then delves into the physics of music and human hearing and continues emphasizing the role of frequencies in shaping tonality and timbre. The significance and effects of different tuning standards, particularly comparing 432Hz tuning to the more commonly used 440Hz standard, have also been reviewed. Additionally, the historical context and potential motives behind the adoption of the 440Hz tuning standard, suggesting military and commercial interests, have been investigated. By examining these aspects, the article aims to deepen our understanding of the effects of different musical tunings on human well-being and perception, calling for further research. Ultimately, the article serves as a call to action for further research in the field.
Music and Evolution (Preface to the Special Issue)
Musicae Scientiae
Music is a human universal. It exists in every known culture, and emerges spontaneously in an early stage of human ontogenetic development. This alone is a strong hint towards some kind of evolutionary origins of music perception and performance. While Darwin himself was somewhat undetermined on how to explain music’s phylogenetic roots, and finally decided for sexual selection as an explanation, the current decade has witnessed an unforeseen boost of theory development and empirical research about the origins of music. [...] This Special Issue [of the scholarly journal Musicae Scientiae, published by Sage] is the first larger compilation of state of the art contributions on Music and Evolution since the turn of the millennium, with 16 peer-reviewed papers on topic.
On the origins of music: A comment
specificity pose challenges to adaptationist models of music evolution. In articulating a series of constraints, the authors of the target articles provide strategies for investigating the potential origins of music. We propose additional approaches for exploring theories based on exaptation. We discuss a view of music as a multimodal system of engaging with affect, enabled by capacities of symbolism and a theory of mind.
Mathematics and Music - Models and Morals
2006
The intimate association between mathematics and music can be traced to the Greek culture. It is well-represented in the prevailing Western musical culture of the 18th and 19th centuries, where the traditional cycle of fifths provides a mathematical model for classical harmony that originated with the well-tempered, and later the equal-tempered, keyboard. Equal-temperament gives equivalent status to all twelve tonal centres in the chromatic scale, leading to a high degree of symmetry and an underlying group structure. This connection seems to endorse the Pythagorean concept of music as exemplifying an ideal mathematical harmony. This paper examines the relationship between abstract mathematics and music more critically, challenging the idealized view of music as rooted in pure mathematical relations and instead highlighting the significance of music as an association between form and meaning that is negotiated and pragmatic in nature. In passing, it illustrates how the complex and s...