25. Musical Syntax I: Theoretical Perspectives

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

25. Musical Syntax I: Theoretical Perspectives 473 25.Musical Musical Syntax I: Theoretical Synt Perspectives a Martin Rohrmeier, Marcus Pearce 25.1 Outline............................................. 473 The understanding of musical syntax is a topic of fundamental importance for systematic musicol- 25.2 Theories of Musical Syntax................. 474 ogy and lies at the core intersection of music theory 25.2.1The Concept of Musical Syntax ............ 474 and analysis, music psychology, and computa- 25.2.2Foundations of Musical Syntax............ 475 tional modeling. This chapter discusses the notion 25.3 Models of Musical Syntax................... 477 of musical syntax and its potential foundations 25.3.1Building Blocks ................................. 477 based on notions such as sequence grammat- 25.3.2Structure Building ............................. 478 icality, expressive unboundedness, generative capacity, sequence compression and stability. Sub- 25.4 Syntactic Models of Diferent Complexity ..................... 478 sequently, it discusses problems concerning the 25.4.1Finite-Context Models........................ 478 choice of musical building blocks to be modeled 25.4.2Finite-State Models ........................... 479 as well as the underlying principles of sequential 25.4.3Context-Free or Equivalent Models...... 479 structure building. The remainder of the chapter 25.4.4Beyond Context-Free Complexity ........ 481 reviews the main theoretical proposals that can be characterized under diferent mechanisms of 25.5 Discussion ........................................ 482 structure building, in particular approaches using 25.A Appendix: The Chomsky Hierarchy ..... 483 fnite-context or fnite-state models as well as 25.A.1Type 3(Regular)................................. 483 tree-based models of context-free complexity (in- 25.A.2Type 2(Context Free) .......................... 483 Part C | cluding the Generative Theory of Tonal Music) and 25.A.3Type 1(Context Sensitive).................... 483 beyond. The chapter concludes with a discussion 25.A.4Type 0(Unrestricted) .......................... 483 25 . of the main issues and questions driving current 1 References................................................... 483 research and a preparation for the subsequent empirical chapter Musical Syntax II. The idea that there is a grammar of music is prob- ably as old as the idea of a grammar itself. Mark Steedman [25.1,p.1] 25.1Outline What distinguishes music from other sounds? One an- tional, and psychological/neuroscientific approaches, swer is to be found in the manner in which the elements questions about musical structure and the perception are organized and related within a structural frame- of it facilitate a close link across traditional divisions work and, most importantly, the apprehension of this between disciplines [25.2]. Note that we use the term structure by a listener, so that the sound is experienced computational to describe a theory that is expressed in as music by that listener. Therefore, discovering the computational terms, whether or not it is actually im- principles of musical structure building is one of the plemented as a computer program. central questions for theoretical and empirical music Exploring the principles of musical structure build- research. Despite the strong historical (and method- ing naturally requires us to distinguish between the goal ological) divide between music-theoretical, computa- of uncovering rules governing the structure of music (an ©Springer-VerlagGmbHGermany2018 R. Bader (Ed.), Springer Handbook of Systematic Musicology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55004-5_25 474 Part C Music Psychology – Physiology external goal) and the cognitive principles of the per- with computational modeling since the search for an ception and production of these structures (an internal optimal structural description (that relates to structures psychological goal). Yet both aspects form two sides as heard)stronglyimpliesmodeling the internal struc- of the same coin: the capacities and limitations of hu- ture of the music (whether it is a single composition, man perception and cognitive processes influence the a part thereof, or a corpus). Since music is an inherently possible structures that composers can use (for a sim- psychological phenomenon, we often use psychological ilar argument about language, the reader is directed understanding to guide the development of structural to [25.3]) and, together with other constraints (e.g., models of music, just as we use structural models of those imposed by cultural factors or the physical prop- music to guide the development and testing of psycho- erties of instruments, constraints of the hands or the logical theories of the perception of musical structure. body, constraints of the performance and so on [25.4]) The disciplines involved in research on musical syn- give rise to the musical structures that we find in mu- tax range from musicology and music theory, through sic. In turn, musical structure is acquired implicitly by computational modeling, to psychology and neurobiol- listeners from mere exposure and musical interaction ogy. Although the disciplinary perspectives are distinct and represented internally [25.5, 6]and,ultimately,re- (e.g., it is possible to develop a structural theory that is produced in compositional practice (since composers optimal according to some criterion, such as simplicity, are listeners before they become composers). However, but not according to the criterion of matching human there can be no learning without a hypothesis space perception and cognition), in this contribution, we fo- and therefore theoretical models of musical structure, cus on a converging picture that emerges when musical especially those grounded in computational modeling, syntax is examined by triangulating between theory, provide a useful approach to understanding the hypoth- computational modeling, and cognitive research. Here esis space that human learners are faced with when they we focus on theoretical approaches to musical syntax acquire the syntactic structure of a musical style. while empirical research using computational models, Finding a formal characterization of musical struc- psychological experimentation, and neuroimaging are ture brings traditional music theory in close connection covered in the companion chapter, Musical Syntax II. Part C | 25 25.2Theories of Musical Syntax . 2 25.2.1The Concept of Musical Syntax the concert is an English sentence, whereas Icon- cert went the to is not. Similarly, I-VII6-I6-II6-V7-I Berwick et al. [25.7,p.89]giveabriefaccountofsyn- [. ] is a coherent progression of chords, whereas tax as: I-I6-VII6-II6-I-V7 [. ] is not, as you can hear if you play through the two examples. In the study of the rules for arranging items (sounds, words, word language, the word syntax is used to refer to the ar- parts, phrases) into their possible permissible com- rangement of words to form sentences; word order binations in a language. is a very important component of syntax. In study- In human language the set of items (alphabet of sym- ing music, we can use the term harmonic syntax to bols) may be words and morphosyntactic units, in refer to the arrangement of chords to form progres- birdsong they may be pitches, slides and other sounds. sions; the order of chords within these progressions In music the symbols may be melodic notes, chords, is at least as important as the order of words in lan- voice-leading patterns or relationships between voices, guage. (Other components of harmonic syntax are timbral qualities and so on. Many music-theoretical the position of chords within phrases, the prepara- approaches constitute informal, verbal accounts of syn- tion and resolution of dissonances, and the relation tactic models of music. Although the use of strict and of chord progressions to melody and bass lines.) well-defined formalisms is not (yet) common in music theory, there are some accounts that employ the notion Asyntactictheorymightbeappliedtoanyaspectof of syntax in music theory. For instance, Aldwell and musical structure – melody, harmony, rhythm, metre, Schachter write the following in order to characterize grouping structure, form, or even aspects such as timbre harmonic syntax [25.8,p.139]: and dynamics. In practice, syntactic approaches have typically been applied to what happens in a musical One way that music resembles language is that sequence – e.g., predicting (combinations of) pitches the order of things is crucial in both. Iwentto and chords – rather than when it happens. Conversely, Musical Syntax I: Theoretical Perspectives 25.2 Theories of Musical Syntax 475 theories of rhythm and metre often do not take an ex- grammaticality judgements), the fact that the space of plicitly syntactic approach. By analogy, metrical and possible musical compositions is theoretically infinite rhythmic features of language are often studied from (or unbounded), the idea that we want to be able to de- the perspective of phonology rather than syntax. A well- scribe structural relationships within musical sequences formed harmonic sequence, for instance, may be as- (i. e., focus on strong generative capacity compared to signed to metrical structure in a regular or irregular weak generative capacity). Syntax is also relevant to way. It is important to note that despite the predom- tasks such as compression, identifying the stability of inance of Western music in theoretical and cognitive events at different levels within music, and measuring research [25.9], the
Recommended publications
  • What Is Musical Meaning? Theorizing Music As Performative U Erance
    What is Musical Meaning? Theorizing Music as Performative Uerance * Andrew J. Chung NOTE: The examples for the (text-only) PDF version of this item are available online at: hp://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.19.25.1/mto.19.25.1.chung.php KEYWORDS: musical meaning, semiotics, J. L. Austin, performative uerance, speech-act theory, philosophy of language, experimental music ABSTRACT: In this article, I theorize a new conception of musical meaning, based on J. L. Austin’s theory of performative uerances in his treatise How to Do Things with Words. Austin theorizes language meaning pragmatically: he highlights the manifold ways language performs actions and is used to “do things” in praxis. Austin thereby suggests a new theoretic center for language meaning, an implication largely developed by others after his death. This article theorizes an analogous position that locates musical meaning in the use of music “to do things,” which may include performing actions such as reference and disclosure, but also includes, in a theoretically rigorous fashion, a manifold of other semiotic actions performed by music to apply pressure to its contexts of audition. I argue that while many questions have been asked about meanings of particular examples of music, a more fundamental question has not been addressed adequately: what does meaning mean? Studies of musical meaning, I argue, have systematically undertheorized the ways in which music, as interpretable uerance, can create, transform, maintain, and destroy aspects of the world in which it participates. They have largely presumed that the basic units of sense when it comes to questions of musical meaning consist of various messages, indexes, and references encoded into musical sound and signifiers.
    [Show full text]
  • Beyond Music and Beyond Words: a Psychoanalytic Inquiry
    STUDIJE O MUZIČKOJ UMETNOSTI/STUDIES ON MUSIC Miloš Zatkalik UDC 78.01 Univerzitet umetnosti u Beogradu doi:10.5937/ZbAkUm1801089Z Fakultet muzičke umetnosti Original scientific paper Aleksandar Kontić Visoka škola likovnih i primenjenih umetnosti u Beogradu. Beyond music and beyond words: A psychoanalytic inquiry Abstract. Relationships between language and music have always been lively and dynamic, from their syncretic unity in rituals, to setting text to music, verbal accounts of musical works, musicalization of literature, to abundance of linguistic and literary metaphors in discourse about music. Both language and music unfold in time; both possess a hierarchy of elements that are combined according to a set of rules. This paper will first indicate some linguistic (primarily syntactic) concepts that inform music theory. An analogy can also be established between the Chomskyan concept of the deep structure of language and Schenkerian Ursatz. Music, however, is not always organized along the lines of syntactic hierarchy. Music is also capable of simultaneity in a way inaccessible to language. In order to negotiate this ambiguous relationship between music and language, we invoke the psychoanalytic model of the mind. It postulates that the archaic experience of the world is associated with the auditory sphere. This auditory, pre-verbal mode of conceiving the world will gradually yield to subsequent developmental phases: the visual, and then verbal communication. The deep structure of music is necessarily analogous to verbal structures. However, owing to its pre-verbal origin, music is also organized according to the more archaic modes of mental functioning. For instance: the precepts of logic do not apply; music allows condensation much more readily than language.
    [Show full text]
  • ISSN -2347-856X ISSN -2348-0653 International Journal of Business and Administrati
    Research Paper IJBARR Impact Factor: 3.072 E- ISSN -2347-856X ISSN -2348-0653 MUSIC IS AN ART AND SCIENCE Prof. P.Thenmozhi Associate Professor and Head, Department of Home Science, Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Tiruchirappalli,,India. Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch (science which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike; "art of the Muses").The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Within the arts, music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art, and auditory art. It may also be divided among art music and folk music. There is also a strong connection between music and mathematics (Talas-counts). Music may be played and heard live, may be part of a dramatic work or film, or may be recorded. Music is a miniature of the harmony of the whole universe, for the harmony of the universe is life itself, and humans, being a miniature of the universe, show harmonious and inharmonious chords in their pulsations, in the beat of their hearts, in their vibration, rhythm and tone. Their health or illness, their joy or discomfort, all show the music or lack of music in their life.Tanjore is to Carnatic Music where Germany is to Western Music. Music is the language of our soul and the soul is the residence of our spirituality.
    [Show full text]
  • Music and Meaning in the 20Th Century
    Towards the Semantics of Music: the 20th Century1 Mihailo Antovic Faculty of Philosophy, University of Nis, Serbia Abstract This paper discusses the problem of musical meaning from the perspective of some 20th century approaches to linguistic semantics. The text briefly covers the issue as it was viewed in the first half of the previous century, and then reviews some studies of musical meaning within the structural, generative, and cognitive frameworks. The author's opinion is that conceptual metaphor theory, in its search of the conceptualization of music, provides the most solid grounds for the foundation of a true „musico-semantics‟. Key words: language, music, meaning, semantics, cognition. he relationship between language and music has been of interest for centuries. Although T structural („grammatical‟) comparisons have occurred throughout the history of language study, and have been topical in the last twenty odd years, it is the problem of musical meaning that has been central to many theoretical discussions, most notably in the aesthetics of music. In this paper, I will try to outline the principal currents in the modern study of music and meaning, analyzing the issue in the framework of linguistic semantics. To define the problem, I will first elaborate on Bernstein‟s term „musico-linguistics‟ (Bernstein, 1976: 9) and introduce the central question related to „musico-semantics‟: does music have any meaning, and if it does, what is its nature and possible relationship to the same term as used in linguistics? The problem of musical signification emerges from the nature of musical phenomena. While music has no clear reference to extramusical reality, it does provoke psychological reactions in listeners comparable to few other arts.
    [Show full text]
  • Music and Language Comprehension in the Brain
    Music and Language Comprehension in the Brain © Richard Kunert 2017 Cover design: Jorrit Kiel ISBN 978-90-76203-79-9 Printed and bound by Ipskamp Drukkers b.v. The research reported in this thesis was supported by a PhD grant by the Max Planck society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) awarded to Richard Kunert and a Spinoza Prize by the Dutch science organization (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek) awarded to Peter Hagoort. Music and Language Comprehension in the Brain Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. J.H.J.M. van Krieken, volgens besluit van het college van decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 10 februari 2017 om 12:30 uur precies door Richard Kunert geboren op 3 december 1985 te Halberstadt (Duitsland) Promotor: Prof. Peter Hagoort Copromotor: Dr. Roel M. Willems Manuscriptcommissie: Prof. James McQueen (Radboud Universiteit) Prof. Sonja A. Kotz (Universiteit Maastricht) Prof. Henkjan Honing (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Table of Contents Foreword 7 Chapter 1 Introduction 9 Chapter 2 Language influences music harmony 31 perception: effects of shared syntactic integration resources beyond attention Chapter 3 Music and Language Syntax Interact in 97 Broca’s Area: An fMRI Study Chapter 4 When do Music Harmony and Language 121 Syntax Processing Interact? An MEG Study Chapter 5 Structural processing of music and 139 language: imaging domain-specific neural resources Chapter 6 An independent psychometric evaluation 171 of the PROMS measure of music perception skills Chapter 7 General discussion and conclusions 193 References 203 Samenvatting 219 Zusammenfassung 221 Acknowledgements 223 Curriculum Vitae 227 Publications 229 MPI Series in 231 Psycholinguistics Foreword Foreword Many a days during my PhD I asked myself why on earth I am doing a PhD on music and language.
    [Show full text]
  • Language and Music: Sound, Structure, and Meaning L
    Advanced Review Language and music: sound, structure, and meaning L. Robert Slevc∗ Language and music are the most impressive examples of humans’ capacity to process complex sound and structure. Though interest in the relationship between these two abilities has a long history, only recently has cognitive and neuroscientific research started to illuminate both what is shared and what is distinct between linguistic and musical processing. This review considers evidence for a link between language and music at three levels of analysis: sound, structure, and meaning. These links not only inform our understanding of language and music, but also add to a more basic understanding of our processing of complex auditory stimuli, structure, meaning, and emotion. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. How to cite this article: WIREs Cogn Sci 2012, 3:483–492. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1186 INTRODUCTION superficial similarities.4,5 Of course, language and music are complex systems that involve many different peech and music are the most impressive processes; some of these processes may be shared while examples of our ability to make sense out of S others may be domain specific. Therefore, the ways sound. Many have suggested that there might be in which language and music rely on shared and on a relationship between these abilities: to pick just distinct cognitive/perceptual processes is likely to lead two examples, Charles Darwin famously suggested to a richer understanding of both domains. A second that language may have evolved from an early reason to investigate language–music relationships is musical communicative system,1 and the American that research on transfer from music to language conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein proposed (and vice versa) provides an interesting opportunity links between several specific aspects of language and to investigate neural (and behavioral) plasticity.
    [Show full text]
  • The Creation of Consonance: How Musical Context Influences Chord Perception
    The Creation of Consonance: How Musical Context Influences Chord Perception Yuko Arthurs A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Music The University of Sheffield August 2015 Abstract This PhD study investigates how our perception of musical chords, both in isolation and in musical context, is influenced and shaped by our knowledge of the tonal hierarchy and tonal syntax in terms of consonance/dissonance, pleasantness/unpleasantness, stability/instability, and relaxation/tension. Six experiments were conducted to gather behavioural data on the perception of chords from listeners with varying levels of musical training and experience. The first study is principally concerned with the influence of frequency of occurrence on the perception of twelve types of chord in isolation, including both triads and tetrads. It also examines to what extent factors besides frequency of occurrence, namely listener familiarity with the timbre in which chords are played and the acoustic features of chords, predict listener perception. The second and third studies concern the perception of chords in musical context. The second study focuses on musical contexts in which diminished and augmented chords appear, and on the harmonic functions of chords in short sequences of IV-V-I. Using sequences containing an augmented chord, the third study investigates the ways in which a non-diatonic tone can be anchored by its succeeding tone, and considers how the perception of these sequences is influenced by the harmonic function of its succeeding chord. These studies all reveal that the way in which chords and chord sequences are perceived is not completely predetermined by their acoustic, physical dimension.
    [Show full text]
  • Relative Pitch and L2 Lexical Tone Perception/Tone Language Comprehension by Adult Tone
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2017 Is It All Relative? Relative Pitch and L2 Lexical Tone Perception/ Tone Language Comprehension by Adult Tone and Non-Tone Language Speakers Sloane C. von Wertz The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2247 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] IS IT ALL RELATIVE? RELATIVE PITCH AND L2 LEXICAL TONE PERCEPTION/TONE LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION BY ADULT TONE AND NON-TONE LANGUAGE SPEAKERS by SLOANE CELESTE VON WERTZ A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2017 © 2017 SLOANE CELESTE VON WERTZ All Rights Reserved ii Is It All Relative? Relative Pitch and L2 Lexical Tone Perception/Tone Language Comprehension by Adult Tone and Non-Tone Language Speakers by Sloane Celeste von Wertz This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Linguistics in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Date Gita Martohardjono Chair of Examining Committee Date Gita Martohardjono Executive Officer Supervisory Committee: Gita Martohardjono Andrew Rosenberg Joseph Straus THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Is It All Relative? Relative Pitch and L2 Lexical Tone Perception/Tone Language Comprehension by Adult Tone and Non-Tone Language Speakers by Sloane Celeste von Wertz Advisor: Professor Gita Martohardjono Languages generally use musical pitch variation of the voice as part of their sound systems (Maddieson, 2011)—pitch variations that can be somewhat reminiscent of music.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cognitive Neuroscience of Music
    THE COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF MUSIC Isabelle Peretz Robert J. Zatorre Editors OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Zat-fm.qxd 6/5/03 11:16 PM Page i THE COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF MUSIC This page intentionally left blank THE COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF MUSIC Edited by ISABELLE PERETZ Départment de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7, Canada and ROBERT J. ZATORRE Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2B4, Canada 1 Zat-fm.qxd 6/5/03 11:16 PM Page iv 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © The New York Academy of Sciences, Chapters 1–7, 9–20, and 22–8, and Oxford University Press, Chapters 8 and 21. Most of the materials in this book originally appeared in The Biological Foundations of Music, published as Volume 930 of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, June 2001 (ISBN 1-57331-306-8). This book is an expanded version of the original Annals volume. The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2003 All rights reserved.
    [Show full text]
  • Semiótica, Semiótica De La Música Y Semiótica Cognitivo- Enactiva De La Música Notas Para Un Manual De Usuario
    Semiótica, semiótica de la música y semiótica cognitivo- enactiva de la música Notas para un manual de usuario. Rubén López Cano [email protected], www.lopezcano.net Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya Rubén López Cano 2007 Los contenidos de este texto están bajo una licencia Creative Commons. Consúltela antes de usarlo. The content on this text is under a Creative Commons license. Consult it before using this article. Cómo citar este artículo: How to cite this article: López Cano, Rubén. 2007. “Semiótica, semiótica de la música y semiótica cognitivo-enactiva de la música. Notas para un manual de usuario”. Texto didáctico (actualizado junio 2007). www.lopezcano.net (Consultado o descargado [día, mes y año]) (Accessed [Day Month Year of access]) Semiótica de la música Rubén López Cano Índice: • Advertencia • Semiótica de la Música • El Signo • ¿Qué es significado en música? • Fundamentos • Saussure y Peirce • Semiótica cognitiva de la música • ¿Semiología o semiótica? • Persuasiones y disuasiones: oferta y problemas de la semiótica de la música • Las ciencias cognitivas • La musicología cognitiva • La cognición enactiva • Como introducirse en el estudio de esto… o Semiótica de la música Algunos autores importantes en el ámbito de la semiótica de la música: Primer encontronazo con la semiótica Introducción a la semiótica general Semiótica de Peirce Semióticas particulares: Eco y Greimas Historia de la semiótica musical Introducción a la semiótica de la música Bibliografia fundamental de algunos maestros de la semiótica musical
    [Show full text]
  • Musical Syntax Processing in Broca's Aphasia
    Lynn Eekhof 33 Musical syntax processing in Broca’s aphasia A proposal for an information theory-based experiment L.S. (Lynn) Eekhof Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands. Manuscript written during their RMA Linguistics, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands. Keywords Abstract music The Shared Syntactic Integration Resource Hypothesis (SSIRH; Patel, 2003) syntax argues that resources for syntactic processing are shared by language and music. Broca’s aphasia As previous models of Broca’s aphasia, most notably Avrutin (2006), have claimed entropy that syntactic processing is weakened in Broca’s aphasics, this together predicts information theory that Broca’s aphasics should not only exhibit problems with the processing of language syntax, but also with musical syntax. In this paper, I propose a new approach for testing this claim based on concepts from information theory (Shannon, 1948). The goal of the proposed experiment is to quantify the severity of the musical deficit of Broca’s aphasics with the use of entropy, and find out whether this is correlated with their weakened performance on linguistic syntactic tests. As such, the proposed research could provide a more fine-grained picture of the syntactical deficit of Broca’s aphasics in the domain of music and language, and ultimately shed light on the fundamental debate about the modularity of mind. 1. Introduction Of the many ways human beings can express themselves, two abilities stand out for their striking similarity: language and music. Both are universal cognitive capacities (Patel, 2003); like language, the production (e.g. humming “well-formed”, natural sounding me lodies) and comprehension (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • Tomo II Plan De Estudios • Maestría En Música • Doctorado En Música
    UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL AUTÓNOMA DE MÉXICO PROGRAMA DE MAESTRÍA Y DOCTORADO EN MÚSICA Tomo II Plan de Estudios Maestría en Música Doctorado en Música Grados que se otorgan Maestro en Música (Cognición Musical, Creación Musical, Educación Musical, Etnomusicología, Interpretación Musical, Musicología o Tecnología Musical) Doctor en Música (Cognición Musical, Creación Musical, Educación Musical, Etnomusicología, Interpretación Musical, Musicología o Tecnología Musical) Campos de conocimiento del Programa Cognición Musical Creación Musical Educación Musical Etnomusicología Interpretación Musical Musicología o Tecnología Musical Entidades académicas participantes Facultad de Música Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas Centro de Ciencias Aplicadas y Desarrollo Tecnológico Fechas de aprobación u opiniones Adecuación y Modificación del Plan de estudios de la Maestría en Música. Fecha de aprobación del Consejo Académico del Área de las Humanidades y de las Artes: 5 de agosto de 2011. Índice ACTIVIDAD ACADÉMICA COMÚN INTRODUCCIÓN A LA INVESTIGACIÓN 2 ACTIVIDAD ACADÉMICA ENCAMINADA A LA GRADUACIÓN SEMINARIO DE INVESTIGACIÓN I 7 SEMINARIO DE INVESTIGACIÓN II 10 SEMINARIO DE INVESTIGACIÓN III 13 COGNICIÓN MUSICAL ACTIVIDADES ACADÉMICAS OBLIGATORIAS ASPECTOS PSICOLÓGICOS DE LA COGNICIÓN MUSICAL 18 BASES BIOLÓGICAS DE LA COGNCIÓN MUSICAL 21 NEUROANATOMÍA 24 ASPECTOS NEUROBIOLÓGICOS DE LA COGNICIÓN MUSICAL 27 PSICOACÚSTICA GENERAL Y APLICADA 30 ACTIVIDADES ACADÉMICAS OPTATIVAS TEMAS SELECTOS DE COGNICIÓN MUSICAL 35 DESARROLLO DEL SISTEMA
    [Show full text]