TRAUMA OF THE BRAIN AND HEART AFFECTS A MUSICIAN'S CREATIVE

OUTPUT

BRIAN JUDE DE LIMA

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSIC

YORK UNIVERSITY,

TORONTO, ONTARIO

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Abstract

The purpose of the following paper is to investigate whether musicians who have experienced brain or heart trauma subsequently experienced an altered creative output.

Examples discussed include the correlations between species of trauma such as physical, emotional and mental stress, as well as the side effects as a result of taking medications.

The primary source of study will be my compositions derived shortly after a concussion and myocardial infarction. Since these compositions contrast greatly from my previous works, investigations have been taken to see if the various species of trauma have had a profound influence on my creative output. Various medical specialists in the fields of neurology and cardiology have contributed their expertise via interviews. Other notable musicians such as Bud Powell and Louis Armstrong have been investigated for their validity to the subject as a result of paralleling their trauma to my own. V

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank first and foremost my supervisor Professor Christina

Petrowska-Quilico as well as my technical supervisor Professor Jay Rahn for their expertise and guidance. I would also like to thank the team of doctors, especially Dr.

David Rosen, Dr. Paul Fedak, Dr. Andre Douen, and Dr. Ryszard Kowalewski, who graciously gave up their time in order to provide me with the information necessary to formulate this thesis. I must acknowledge the musical genius of Bud Powell, Louis

Armstrong and Frederic Chopin; their works have and will always serve as an influence on my own. My performance teachers, James Tweedie and Dr. Barry Harris deserve credit for being great messengers of the truth. I would also like to thank my parents and wife, Tanya de Lima, for always supporting and believing in my ambitious endeavours.

Finally, I would like to give and dedicate this thesis to the artists mentioned in this paper for their achievement of self efficacy through the experience of mastery. They are the vehicle for all to learn and live by for their lives are fundamental to the human condition. vi

Table of Contents

Title Page (i)

Copyright Page (ii)

Certificate Page (iii)

Abstract (iv)

Acknowledgments (v)

Table of Contents (vi)

List of Figures (ix)

Introduction 1

Primary and Secondary Sources 2

Preliminary Investigations 3

Thesis Statement 5

Chaotic Structures 7

Creativity as a Coping Mechanism 8

Artist Projection 10

Art Mimics Life 11

Powell's Epilepsy and Creativity 12

Music and Speech Disorders: Modularity of the Brain 14

Amusia vs. Aphasia 15

Compositions of the Author 18

Post-Heart Attack 20

Mental Dlness: Depression, Anxiety and Mania 24 Drugs and Creativity 29

Neuroplasticity 33

Gestalt Principles 35

Memory 38

The Musical Lexicon 40

Motor Learning 41

Perceptual Training 43

Sleep 45

Natural Evolution 46

Conclusion 48

Disclaimer 61

References 91 VIII

List of Figures

Fig. 1. Anterior Corpus Callosum in Musicians / Non-musicians 51

Fig. 2. Corpus Callosum Measurements 51

Fig. 3. Anterior Corpus Callosum in Musicians with Early Training 52

Fig. 4. Planum Temporale Size Differences 52

Fig. 5. Thinking Changes 53

Fig. 6. Physical Changes 54

Fig. 7. Personality and Behavioural Changes 54

Fig. 8. Frontal Lobe Functions 55

Fig. 9. Temporal Lobe Functions 55

Fig. 10. Parietal Lobe Functions 55

Fig. 11. Occipital Lobe Functions 55

Fig. 12. Cerebellum Lobe Functions 56

Fig. 13. Brain Stem Functions 56

Fig. 14. Effects of Injuries of the Right Side of Brain 56

Fig. 15. Effects of Injuries of the Left Side of Brain 57

Fig. 16. A Modular Model of Music Processing 58

Fig. 17. Myocardial Infarction 59

Fig. 18. Angioplasty 59

Fig. 19. Stent in the Left Anterior Descending Artery 60 ix

List of Musical Examples

The BUDist Monk 62

The Immaculate Deception 65

Lima Beans 66

Dementia 5 Bud's Bowells 71

Hamburg Helper 75

Subperverse 77

Oscar the Grouch 80

Prosodaic Cues 83

Neuroplasticity 85

My Cardinal Infarction 88 1

Introduction

In February of 2006, I suffered a concussion. Immediately following the concussion, I began to have feelings of anxiety and anger and subsequently became depressed. The depression was largely a result of an inability to manage more than 30 minutes of practice as a result of pain and lack of concentration: a significant drop from practicing 8-10 hours a day. Composing then became a major focus for me, and I hoped that perhaps new creativity might be manifest after the incident. The songs composed shortly after the concussion did convey the frustration and pain of the ordeal.

Harmonically, the compositions were none like I had composed before, reflecting the landscape of my emotional state. Besides physical pain and mental distress, could there be other factors affecting my compositional process? The doctors did not administer any pain killers or blood thinners; therefore medication in this case was not an influence on my music. What I later found out was that brain chemistry is quite volatile and will react to a concussion by releasing an overabundance of chemicals. Further investigations of the brain when injured and its role in the creative process will be discussed later in this thesis.

In March of 2009,1 suffered a major heart attack (myocardial infarction). At this time

I was bedridden for five days in the hospital. As in the case of the concussion, I experienced feelings of frustration and depression over the matter, and decided the next step was to write a body of music depicting the heart attack since I was not physically strong enough to play. The creative process had begun to take form even while I was bedridden. When I was released from the hospital, I immediately tried to work out the musical progressions which had been churning in my head. The harmonies were much 2 more experimental than in my other works, perhaps for the following reason: in this second, more severe medical trauma, I was administered powerful medications in the hospital, one of them morphine, for pain. Medication would have to be taken into consideration as a plausible contributor to the creative process. Other considerations to be taken into account as a contributor to the creative process are physical and mental stress, as well as cognitive and perceptual changes and memory construction. Another consideration would be the amount of practice and performance hours accumulated from a young age that had sharpened my skill in improvisation, which can be viewed as a facet of creativity. A final, plausible cause for such a creative outcome might simply be attributed to the natural evolution of artistic maturity as a musician.

Although there are innumerable bodily injuries and afflictions that can influence a musician's creative process, this thesis will concentrate only on the injuries from which I suffered personally and the corpus of music derived from those injuries. As the two main injuries were a concussion and a heart attack, my objective will be to investigate these two types of medical traumas in relation to the creative output of a musician.

Primary and Secondary Sources

The primary sources include both the traumas and the compositions. The music I composed shortly following the traumas will exemplify the changes in creative output with regard to harmony, tonality, rhythm and performance. This exemplification in creative output will be contrasted against my first body of work, INhER Demons, composed at a time when I was perfectly healthy. This contrast of pre-trauma and post- trauma works, the medical information provided by the various doctors (i.e., cardiologist, 3 neurologist, general practitioner and anaesthesiologist) and the biographical studies will serve to support the hypothesis presented. Apart from my personal experiences and the various interviews with doctors, I will also focus on secondary sources. These will include physical and medical traumas endured by other musicians, such as Earl "Bud"

Powell, who suffered a terrible head beating from the police following a drug arrest in the

1940s. His compositions and performances before and after the incident, and subsequent electro-shock treatments, will be a focus. I will focus on various other musicians throughout this thesis as well as the effects of their traumas on their creative output.

Preliminary Investigations

Besides the actual concussion and heart attack, there could be many outside factors that had a major role on my creative output following those traumatic experiences.

According to a preliminary interview I conducted with Dr. Paul Fedak, Assistant

Professor in the Division of Cardiac Surgery, at the Department of Cardiac Sciences at

Lisbin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, University of Calgary, the following species of stresses must be taken into account when examining a person's creative output following a trauma to the body, in particular, the brain and the heart:

1. When the heart is injured from a heart attack, circulation to the brain can be temporarily compromised, leading to symptoms similar to those of a concussion. There may be a link between the two scenarios. Both can produce a temporary change in brain function that may lead to subtle differences in thinking. For most people these changes are not detectable; however, in individuals who perform highly complex activities, like composing etc., these changes may manifest more noticeably. 4

2. The mental stress in both situations (myocardial infarction and concussion) should be considered because this stress could also change one's pattern of thinking and perception.

3. Effects of medications: These can produce profound changes in brain chemistry. New or different medications at the time of these injuries can have an influence.

4. Social or emotional circumstances as a result of the concussion or heart injury.

According to the Brain Injury Association Board of Directors (2003),

'Traumatic brain injury is an insult to the brain, not of a degenerative or congenital nature but caused by an external physical force, that may produce a diminished or altered state of consciousness, which results in an impairment of cognitive abilities or physical functioning." More important and relevant to my study on a musician's creative output is this statement from the same source: "[Traumatic brain injury] can also result in the disturbance of behavioural or emotional functioning. These impairments may be either temporary or permanent and may cause partial or total functional disability or psychosocial maladjustment."

There is also a cognitive link between the injured heart and brain which is called acquired brain injury. Acquired brain injury takes place at the cellular level within the brain. That is, acquired brain injury can affect cells throughout the entire brain, instead of just in specific areas as with traumatic brain injury. An acquired brain injury is an injury to the brain, which is not hereditary, congenital, degenerative, or induced by birth trauma.

An acquired brain injury is an injury to the brain that has occurred after birth. There are many causes of acquired brain injury. Of importance to my study is the link between the damaged brain and the creative output of the musician, post trauma. According to The 5

Brain Injury Association Board of Directors (2003), an acquired brain injury commonly results in a change in neuronal activity, which affects the physical integrity, the metabolic activity, or the functional ability of the cell. This may result in mild, moderate, or severe impairments in one or more areas, including cognition, speech-language communication; memory; attention and concentration; reasoning; abstract thinking; physical functions; psychosocial behaviour; and information processing.

When examining a person's creative output, one factor unrelated to medical trauma could be that of timing: maybe the events are not causally linked at all? Would the same insights or creative revelations at those times occur without the injury? For example, many scientists come up with the same discoveries at around the same time even though they work in different parts of the world and have never met. This is because they may have been exposed to the same things that led to the discovery and the creative event. Sometimes creative events are incremental and the similarities in composing may be similar.

Thesis statement

Trauma of the brain and heart affects a musician's creative output

It can be said that creativity is central to an artist when encountered with illness or trauma. This illness can be viewed as transformable as a result of the artist's passion to be creative during times of sickness. According to Tobi Zausner (2006), artists choose to be creative when they are sick and as a result of that creativity during sickness, a transformation is incurred not just of the work but of the self. 6

This transformation of the work and self is a precursor to what psychologist

Albert Bandura calls "self-efficacy, the way we perceive ourselves and our belief that the things we do make a difference" (Zausner, 2006, p. 14). Not only do these beliefs inspire motivation and determine our behaviour, they foster an individual's mastery in performing a task in a difficult situation as a result of the uncontrollable circumstances at hand. Despite their physical challenges, the artists mentioned in this paper achieve self efficacy through the experience of mastery.

A transforming illness is a stage of poor health that will have major implications on work, perception and life. Whether the transforming illness is a single episode or a chronic condition of health, things are never the same afterward. Furthermore, as no person is immune to illness or to change, everyone is a potential candidate (Zausner,

2006). The transformational process can occur quickly in a split second of insight, such as an epiphany. At other times it may be a slower, more gradual transition to a new life.

The creative process usually begins after the acute phase of trauma is over and an overabundance of rest produces a need to fill the empty hours.

Physicians have recognized and written about the connection between illness, creativity, and self transformation. According to author and surgeon Philip Sandblom, "In artists, the passion to create generates a willpower strong enough to defy the worst disease" (Sandblom, 1999, p. 20). Author Zausner cites psychiatrist Rudolph Balentine, who states: "Illness gives you the gift of helplessness, the overwhelming awareness that your way of being has at least in some aspects failed" (2006, p.9). Whenever a transforming illness occurs, it is a turning point in the life of the individual, leaving 7 him/her a different person than the one they were before. Feelings of chaos are usually predominant before any new transformation takes place (Zausner, 2006)

Chaotic Structures

Whenever one is stressed or sick, one is in a state of chaos. Emotional stress such as depression and physical stresses such as head or heart trauma produce chaos (Zausner,

2006). According to Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogina: "Chaos is a state of turbulence in which things appear disordered, but actually have an inherent structure that can produce new order" (Zausner, 2006, p. 10). Transforming illness may look disordered, but encapsulates the foundations for a new existence. Illness parallels chaos in two ways:

Firstly, in an acute illness, a time of chaos is encountered and reorganizes the individual's world and dissipates. Secondly, in chronic illness, the chaos is ongoing and individuals must try to cope, persevere, and adapt accordingly. There are many examples of chaos and its new world aftermath. New Year's Eve parties are noisy before the New Year begins. The birthing process of a baby is chaotic and leads to a new way of life for the new parents. Chaos brings in a window of opportunity to turn a transforming illness into a spandrel of positive artistic growth.

The elements which encompass chaos are no different from the genetic architecture of harmony; the relationship between elements static or non-static that are not similar and yet are complimentary. Examples of this relationship would include colours on opposing sides of a colour wheel, or oil and vinegar on a salad. The harmony in chaos is no different than primitive elements combining to create art and, more 8 importantly, the relationships between these elements. Neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin provides further insight on this idea:

The fundamental elements of visual perception include color (which itself can be decomposed into the three dimensions of hue, saturation, and lightness), brightness, location, texture, and shape. But a painting is more than these - it is not just a line here and another there, or a spot of red in one part of the picture and a patch of blue in another. What makes a set of lines and colours into art is the relationship between this line and that one; the way one colour or form echoes another in a different part of the canvas. Those dabs of paint and lines become art when form and flow (the way in which your eye is drawn across the canvas) are created out of lower-level perceptual elements. When they combine harmoniously they give rise to perspective, foreground and background, and ultimately to emotion and other aesthetic attributes. Similarly, dance is not just a raging sea of unrelated bodily movements the relationship of those movements to one another is what creates integrity and integrality, a coherence and cohesion that the higher levels of our brain process (Levitin, 2006, p. 18).

Similarly, the "coping" elements of chaos work in tandem to give rise to creativity. What are these "coping" elements of chaos? Concepts from psychology can be used to show a parallelism between primitive elements of creating art, including the important relationships between those elements, and the architecture created by chaos as a coping element.

Creativity as a Coping Mechanism

The "coping mechanism" is a term used to define how individuals deal with stressful events. Using creativity to cope during poor health is a positive response to a difficult situation. Psychologist Salvatore R. Madd states: "Making a hard time more bearable is what is known as transformational coping" (Zausner, 2006, p. 11). For example, in 1980, an aneurysm from a previously undiagnosed brain abnormality required surgery that completely wiped out jazz guitarist Pat Martino's musical memory.

Sixty percent of his brain was removed at the left temporal lobe. In order to cope, 9

Martino listened to his old recordings and eventually taught himself to play again.

Martino said that "the inability to function in a homogeneous musical fashion" had given him "the greatest gift to focus on the moment" (Jablow, 2010) A moment which recalls no past and therefore true spontaneity has been achieved from an improvisational perspective. "The less control, the better" (Jablow, 2010).

According to psychologist Celeste Rhodes, the coping mechanism becomes a tool for personal growth (Zausner, 2006). The end result is known as eminent creativity, resulting from art, and created to counteract feelings of depression. Conversely, there are negative coping mechanisms where artists may sometimes use an unhealthy strategy in response to illness. This negative coping mechanism is usually used as an escape from reality when dealing with illness or trauma. After suffering a heart attack in 1959, Louis

Armstrong continued to perform full-time, against his doctor's orders, and even continued smoking marijuana on a daily basis. His creativity had clearly declined and this talented artist eventually became reduced to a Vaudeville artist and showman, compared to the innovator he once was (Bums, 2004).

A paradox exists where substance abuse may serve as a catalyst for creativity, even when artists abuse drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism. Claude Debussy's use of opium fostered the well-known works Images, Nocturnes, and the song "Prelude a l'apr£s-midi d'un faune".

Resilience is the ability to adapt to new circumstances when life has changed in ways we could not have predicted or chosen. It is also humanity's capacity to prevail despite life's major stresses that could threaten us. Maurice Ravel suffered an injury to the left hemisphere of the brain and developed semantic asphasia-, an inability to process 10 representations and symbols, abstract concepts or categories. Although his creative mind remained intact, able to conjure musical patterns and tunes, he could no longer notate them to paper. Theophile Alagorinine, Ravel's physician, made the correlation that his patient's musical inventiveness was unfortunately limited by his loss of musical language. One needs not go further to capture this turmoil, than to listen to Ravel's

"Bolero", which encapsulates relentless repetition of a single musical phrase dozens of times (Sacks, 2007). This is a stark contrast from Ravel's earlier works such as "Serenade

Grotesque" which, although featuring repetition, is a more integral part of a much larger musical structure.

Artist Projection

Artist projection can be viewed as a compensational response of committing an action to make up for something that is missing. Rooted in psychological undertones, artists project themselves and what they desire into what they are creating; as a result, they manifest themselves into their works as the focal point and subject of their creations.

This virtual reality of artistic endeavour is also a compensational tool for letting go of their physical condition at the time (Zausner, 2006). Gustav Mahler's diagnosis of the heart condition known as arrhythmia was denoted at the surface level in his ninth symphony, in which a syncopated leading rhythm exemplifies "the irregular beats of a diseased heart" (Sandblom, 1999, p. 17).

Earl "Bud" Powell bore the brunt of numerous physical beatings from the police as a result of drug related activities and disorderly conduct. His stay at the Willowgrove

Mental Ward produced compositions such as "The Glass Enclosure", "Willowgrave", and 11

"Hallucinations". These works not only exemplify Powell's turbulent times in the institution, but also the experiences of violence he encountered with police officials.

Listening to the erratic rhythms and polytonal clusters gives the audience a window into his tormented encounters with the law.

Because it is so convincing to the artist, compensation and artistic projection can fuse in the creative process, during which the artist feels a stronger experience during the creative process itself, rather than reflectively looking at the work after completion.

"From a musical axis, this can be viewed as the artist enveloped in the moment of his creation, becoming what he composes as it appears" (Zausner, 2006, p. 16). Powell's composition "The Glass Enclosure" is a testament to this notion. New York critic Ira

Gitler has described Powell's compositions as "a man walking on a tightrope over a chasm of poetic beauty and madness" (Groves, 2001, p. 116). The dichotomy of Powell's inner torment drove him to seek relief in his compositions that gave him a rehabilitation effect while adding to his suffering (Groves, 2001).

Art Mimics Life

According to Alan Groves (2001), on September 4, 1952, "Bud Powell had been committed in the Pilgrim State Mental Institution. He was allowed to play the piano and compose once a week under supervision. The attendants stopped the session when Powell became too agitated by his musical compositions (Groves, 2001, p. 51). Powell's compositions were all fragments of his inner life and surroundings. They denote the struggle for artistic beauty in times of his mental breakdown and chaos. "The Glass

Enclosure" refers to being a prisoner in a physically damaged body with the emotional 12 fragility of glass. The transparency of the title is also a denotation of the turmoil one hears in this composition. "Hallucinations" and "Oblivion and Wail" were written during the time when he was subjected to electroshock treatments.

Powell's Epilepsy and Creativity

Doctor Harris, a physician, pianist, and friend of Powell's guardian Francis Paudras, decided to investigate Powell's case. His conclusions stemmed from physically examining Powell and accurately transcribing his compositions and improvisations. His notes purport the following:

Apart from the usual psychiatric interpretations of that phenomenon [epilepsy], it is a fact that auditory hallucinations - including hearing voices - are one form of epileptic manifestations. What I am talking about is a far more subtle form of epilepsy, rather than the stereotype of the grand mal seizure or whole body convulsions, which I'm sure most people call to mind when they hear this word. Actually, the French term - "absence" - expresses the idea of the petit mal variety of epilepsy, which is what I have and I think Bud had. The precise symptoms depend on exactly what part of the brain has been injured. This injury would in no way be visible to the naked eye, even if it could view the brain directly. Yet, the injured area has acquired the property of spontaneous activity (that is, activity without an external stimulus or willed internal stimulus). If it is the area concerned with normal hearing, for example, the individual may at times hear things which aren't there. These may be "records" of the past - as in the case of hearing symphonies - or voices speaking for the first time. After experiencing such sensations, the individual may or may not lose consciousness for a brief period of time. If he loses consciousness, he may nevertheless carry out movements of parts of his body (including turning the head, facial grimaces, staring with the eyes or blinking rapidly) which appear to the observer as if they were deliberate... (Francis Paudras, 1998, p. 180).

As for Powell's performance and creativity, Dr. Harris goes on to say the following:

I think that the content is so strong (that is, the chords are so richly voiced, and there are so many notes with such a strong pulsation in the line) that the brain is literally driven into "overload" and if the person doing the playing has any tendency towards seizures the music will thus trigger their occurrence. The onset of the seizure has a terrible subjective sensation (I feel as if I am going to become paralyzed, or lose consciousness and die); since I know what is happening to me I 13

can deal with it, but if Bud didn't know what was happening to him it would have been very frightening to him to have such experiences, I'm sure. All I have to do to stop the sensations is to stop playing for a short time. This may have been what Bud was doing when he paused in the middle of playing, as several critics have described, or simply sat at the keyboard without even beginning to play. In those instances, he may have begun to experience odd sensations as soon as he got near the piano, and was afraid to play because that might worsen the way he was feeling (1998, p. 181).

Neurologist Anjan Chatteijee of the University of Pennsylvania believes that "brain injuries and disease usually hamper the production of art, yet the exceptions could be revealing. Sometimes the great artists can give us insight into the process because they have distilled it into a more extreme version" (Jablow, 2010). For example, Terence

Conley, a jazz pianist of the Count Basie Orchestra, sustained major injuries to his head when his vehicle crashed into the back of a bus. His brain swelling and difficulty breathing led the doctors at Bellevue Hospital to believe that he would have to live in a nursing home if and when he came out of the coma. As the months passed, Conley not only began to make remarkable strides in his recovery, he even began to express his desire to sit and play at his own piano. Conley's amazing recovery eventually led him to perform at the Apollo Theatre, playing beside the likes of Wynton Marsalis and bebop master Barry Harris.

Legendary jazz pianist and educator Barry Harris suffered a stroke in 1993, which briefly sidelined his career. With determination and dedication, he built his strength to perform less than one year later at the prestigious jazz club Village Vanguard. This amazing comeback was noted by University of North Western, who presented Harris with an honorary doctorate, not just for his lifetime achievement in the preservation of the bebop idiom, but also for his resilience and ability to adapt to a life-changing illness

(Wendell). 14

As a final example, American composer Charles Ives became a victim to several heart problems which eventually led to a heart attack in 1918. Although his career as a composer had come to an end, a new career emerged, promoting the various works he had composed before the trauma:

This marked a turning point in his career. As Ives' biographer Jan Swafford points out, for the remainder of his life the primary focus of Ives' musical efforts would be promoting his works, rather than composing (Mortensen, 2002).

In these cases, the artists experienced a rebirth in their careers after they experienced a medical trauma. Obviously this is not always the case, as in the example of classical pianist Solomen Cutner, known for playing titanic works such as the first piano concertos of Brahms and Tchaikovsky by the age of twelve (Liu, 1999). Cutner suffered a mini- stroke, otherwise known as a transient ischemic attack. Unfortunately these types of attacks are usually a precursor for a "grand mal" attack, which in his case caused an entire side of his body to be paralyzed. Cutner never recorded or played in public again, following the grand mal seizure; he did, however, continue to teach and compose music

(Liu, 1999).

Music and Speech Disorders: Modularity of the Brain

Neurologists often refer to a "speech area" in the premotor zone of the brainvs dominant (usually left) frontal lobe. In 1862, French neurologist Paul Broca identified damage to this left temporal lobe to be associated with the affliction known as aphasia, which could be brought on by a degenerative disease, stroke or brain injury (Sacks,

2007). Providing further evidence for the proposed link between the brain's biology and rare forms of creativity are medical cases of individuals, whose artistic creativity became 15 altered only following neurological reconstruction caused by trauma. The strongest support for the existence of processing components, whose operation is specific to the processing of music and speech, comes from the study of auditory disorders post-brain damage (Peretz & Zatorre, 2005). Similar to the perception of speech, music involves processing and interpreting sound waves. Although this parity might lead one to intuitively suspect that language and music are processed by the same neural structure and cognitive architecture, researchers Bella, Peretz, Piccirilly, and Luzzi argued that music and speech entail separate or specialized networks in the brain. There are contradictory viewpoints on the matter, which will be discussed shortly.

Amusia vs. Aphasia

People with amusia experience difficulties perceiving music. Brain damaged patients who suffer from pure sensory amusia have normal capacities to process speech/language and environmental sounds, but are unable to hear or process music in a normal fashion.

Conversely, people who suffer from aphasia are unable to understand or produce speech, and thus have difficulty comprehending language. Both amusia and aphasia have been termed by neuropsychologists as "double disassociation." This entails that both speech and music processing are independent or functionally separate cognitive processes. The impairment of one cognitive process does not necessarily disrupt another (Lotis, 2002).

A case of aphasia without amusia is documented by Basso and Capitani (1985).

"N.S", a sixty-seven year old orchestral conductor suddenly developed a brain infarction and became unable to speak but for a few short expressions. Oral and written comprehension of language was also severely impaired, although when they were 16 isolated, he could successfully understand words; either oral or written. However, "N.S" had great difficulty writing either independently or even if being dictated to. Despite

"N.S.'s" impairment in reading and language, he retained his ability to read music. "'N.S' was given the score of a Beethoven piece to read, while the examiner played, and he correctly detected minor deliberate errors of a harmonic nature, which thus called for analysis and comprehension of the score" (Basso and Capitani, 1985, p. 410). This ability indicates that reading written language and reading written music might activate different pathways in the brain (Lotis, 2002).

Another example describes a blind musician who wrote and read music in Braille prior to the onset of Wernicke's aphasia (the most common form of aphasia). As a result of the brain damage, the musician could no longer read or write language in Braille, but retained the ability to read and write music in Braille (Lotis, 2002).

Neuroscientists Piccirulli, Sciarma and Luzzi discussed a case of amusia without aphasia, pertaining to an amateur twenty year old guitarist. After experiencing sudden and violent headaches, the patient underwent surgery to correct a medium-sized arteriovenous malformation in the left temporal region. After the surgery, it became apparent that his musical perception attenuated. The patient complained that "I can't hear any musicality; all the notes are the same" (Piccirulli et al, 2000, p. 542). Although this patient was not as professional of a musician as "N.S", he played regularly in a band and was passionate about music. After this event, he was no longer able to play the guitar or sing. He did, however, comprehend linguistic and environmental sounds. Compared to patient "N.S", this patient shows "reverse disassociation" and supports the evidence of modularity of music perception in the brain. If music perception does not encapsulate a 17 specific cognitive system of the brain, how does it work? A further analysis of the amateur guitarist exploits some interesting disassociation. The patient said "I can recognize the guitar, but not the melody" (Piccirulli et al, 2000, p. 542). This is a strong indication that timbre, a quality of sound that allows us to distinguish among different instruments that are playing at the same pitch and intensity, could be classified as a functionally separate cognitive ability compared to the perceptual processing of melody

(Lotis, 2002). As a result of using several tests used to assess musical abilities in individuals, the twenty year old patient was found to have retained the ability to process rhythmic structure and timbre, but had no ability to process melodic structure. The end result was a patient who could no longer enjoy music because new sounds appeared

"empty and cold" to him. This prognosis is a clear indicator that, even with preserved rhythm and timbre perception, music cannot be enjoyed in the same fashion or be found aesthetically pleasing to the brain without melodic and pitch formation (Lotis, 2002).

Another example of a unique case of amusia involves a patient of Dr. Mazzoni, who was a professional guitarist prior to his brain injury. This patient retained the ability to perceive and/or produce rhythms, melodies and harmonies, which the twenty year old amateur guitarist previously mentioned failed to recognize or produce. Despite the fact that Dr. Mazzoni's patient was able to perceive these components of music, he complained that music now sounded flat and he could no longer experience the same aesthetic pleasure. He explained that though he could distinguish between instruments (or timbre), he could not perceive the whole musical piece (Lotis, 2002).

The studies done by Piccirulli and Mazzoni hypothesize that the ability to perceive the individual components of music alone is not a complete exploration of how the brain 18 processes or enjoys music. Their case studies provide important factors that although individual characteristics such as timbre, pitch, rhythm and melody might constitute separately functioning modules, they must all have a connection to a musical semantic store of some sort. In these case studies, either the musical semantic module, that is, what stores the meanings of music, had been damaged, or the pathways connecting other individual musical components to the semantic system, had been impaired (Lotis, 2002).

Famous musicians who have suffered from amusia and aphasia also exist, though one would be hard pressed to identify those musicians simply from listening to their music. The well known French composer Maurice Ravel suffered an injury to the left hemisphere and subsequently developed Wernicke's aphasia. Although able to retain his critical capacities, as well as to easily recognize melodic errors, had excellent pitch recognition and could recognize new works of music, he had great difficulty reading notes and performing. He could no longer compose.

Russian composer Vissarion Shebalin became severely aphasic after a stroke. He continued composing and teaching and was still considered as gifted as ever. Fellow composer Dmitri Shostakovich described Shebalin's Fifth Symphony, which had been composed after the stroke as "a brilliant, creative work filled with the highest emotion and optimism and full of life" (Shreeve, 1996).

Compositions of the Author

Just prior to my concussion, I recorded a body of music which I felt was an amalgamation of styles and influences over a period of twenty years. The compositions on the record INhER Demons refer to my affinity for the genre of jazz known as bebop. 19

Bebop was derived from the rebellious underworld of after-hours clubs in the 1940's, and paralleled the socio-political landscape at that time. The black musicians who created the erratic rhythms and dissonant harmonies of bebop, wanted to prevent the white, middle- class musicians from learning, or "stealing" what they considered to be their music

(Burns, 2004). Bebop jazz involves reharmonization of, for example, popular Broadway musical songs with a faster or slower tempo, as well as double-time solos. The comping patterns on the rhythmic instruments also have much more flexibility compared to swing music, in which comping typically takes place on the downbeats.

The compositions from INhER Demons were written between the years 2003-2005.1 was a student of bebop pianist and educator Dr. Barry Harris at the time. The music of

Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Art Tatum and Thelonious Monk were also major influences on me during this period. It is my speculation that the development of my compositions progressed as a result of lifting numerous solos and harmonic progressions by the aforementioned bebop artists, as well as other bebop masters. Through this process I believe that I acquired the syntactic and semantic architecture of the language of bebop.

It is my opinion that the syntax used in bebop can be considered a bastardization of swing music as well as baroque harmonic progressions; an example of the latter can be found in

Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach's "Solfeggietto", where chord progression oscillates between Im6 and V7 throughout. This progression has been used in famous bebop anthems, an example of which can be found in Bud Powell's rendition of "Solfeggietto," an improvisation over the original harmonic structure, as well as in Dizzy Gillespie's

"Bebop". It is my opinion that 20th century compositions featuring the tritone interval 20 also influenced bebop artists; for example, the tritone interval has inspired many of

Charlie Parker's compositions and improvisations.

Many of the songs on my album, InHer Demons (2006) are based on popular tunes from musicals. "Lima Beans" (Fig. 9) is based on "Lover Come Back to Me" (1928);

"The Buddhist Monk" (Fig. 10) is based on the song "I Cover the Waterfront" (1933);

"Devil in Mai Room" is based on "Old Devil Moon" (1947). The harmonies throughout

InHer Demons consist of standard harmonic chord extensions such as #9, natural 9, #11, or tritone substitutions such as F#7 instead of C7. In these pieces, there is an emphasis on diminished harmony which creates fluidity and movement from a given chord to its dominant counterpart. An example of this can be heard in the song "She", originally composed by George Shearing. The use of the whole tone scale is a result of listening to hours of Thelonious Monk and Impressionist composers such as Debussy and Ravel.

Conversely, the compositions derived after my concussion, "Subperverse, (2006)" and

"Oscar the Grouch" (2006) are not as compliant to the original schema as the other compositions. These two post-concussion compositions focus much more heavily on harmony rather than on the melodic contours of a single melody. In fact, the harmonic progressions dictate the melody. As an example, in "Subperverse" the top notes of the chord extensions end up forming the melody, somewhat akin to John Coltrane's "Giant

Steps". Before the concussion, I first composed a melody and harmonized afterwards.

Post-Heart Attack

In "Neuroplasticity," (2009) (Fig. 14) the constant rhythmic backdrop of a polyrhythm, which consists of four even quarter notes against six quarter note triplets, is 21 carried throughout the first half of this composition with the only changes occurring in harmony. Another new composition "My Cardinal Infarction" features repetition of melodic rhythms, repetition of harmonic relationships between thirds and triads, and there is a constant accompaniment pattern in mm. 1-27.

Of further note: the use of dissonance can be found throughout the compositions pre- and post-concussion and heart attack. The difference lies in the choice of dissonant notes.

For example, throughout INhER Demons, one hears many double-diminished chords (the family of dominant seventh chords and their respective related diminished seventh chords that are played simultaneously). However, in the new compositions, one hears such dissonances as a flattened 7th or a flattened 9th against Major 7th chords.

Could these odd combinations be connected to my medical traumas? After the concussion, I experienced difficulty with short term memory and speech (specifically, with forgetting the meanings of some words). Earlier I wrote that there were contradictory viewpoints with regards to the possibility that music entails a separate or specialized network from speech. There is more current empirical data supporting the fact that music and speech are not neurologically neuroscientist Stefan Koelsch, "important

parallels exist between music and speech. Brain-evoked potentials elicited from the processing of musical chord sequences, have been found to be similar to those elicited by spoken language" (Koelsch et al, 2002).

The concussion I experienced was a direct blow to the left temporal lobe, the area associated with language comprehension. According to Diana Deutsch (2010), professor at the University of California, San Diego, speech and melody are interconnected. In a

2002 study conducted by Stefan Koelsch, participants were present with a sequence of 22 chords while using a functional MRI to monitor their brains. The results exposed that activity takes place on both sides of the brain, but most notably in two regions in the left hemisphere, Broca's and Wernicke's areas, that are vital in language processing and that many researchers had assumed were solely dedication to this function (Deutsch, 2010).

The brain circuits that interpret music also overlap with those that process speech.

According to Deutsch (2010):

This overlap makes sense because language and music have a lot in common. They are both governed by a grammar in which basic elements are organized hierarchically into sequences [gesthalt] according to established rules [schema]. In language, words combine to form phrases [syntax], which join to form larger phrases, which in turn combine to make sentences. Similarly, in music, notes [characters, or on paper, inscriptions] combine to form phrases [syntax: the relationship among characters] which connect to form larger phrases, and so on (p. 38).

According to Dr. A.D. Patel (2003), the left inferior frontal cortex has been generally implicated in the comprehension of sentences, and specifically in the control of semantic information and rehearsal and maintenance of linguistic as well as non-linguistic verbal materials (such as music). Syntax in language and music share a common set of processes found in these regions (Patel, 2003). Since brain circuits that interpret music and speech overlap, it is my speculation that the aftermath of the concussion left me with a damaged sense of syntax. I was having difficulty with speech; sometimes my words were slurred, at other times, I used words incorrectly, or could not identify the word I wanted to use. In my own creative process, after the concussion I started to feel as though I was not expressing myself according to the rules governed by the bebop language, even though I had studied bebop extensively. As a result of the musical syntax being altered, it may be possible that the semantics associated with the bebop language also became altered. This caused me to gain a new perspective; a perspective that enabled me to play more in the 23 moment; a perspective which did not look to the ego for compensation and security. Ego did not even come into question, as I felt I had a considerable handicap after all of the medical traumas which had so adversely affected me. Playing from this perspective has delivered an excitement because I am never sure if the ideas, which I have constructed in the moment, will work within the rules governed by the bebop language.

The aftermath of the concussion also seems to have left me with a new predilection for dissonant intervals, which may be the "prosodic cue" to express my emotional state.

Prosody encompasses overall pitch level, range and contour (the pattern of rises and falls in pitch), loudness variation, rhythm and tempo, regardless of the words being spoken.

Since music is linked to the same systems that govern emotional expression, cognitive scientist at Dartmouth, Jamshed Bharucha, also sees its roots embedded in pre-linguistic manipulations of the voice (Shreev, 1996). After my concussion and heart attack, my choice of notes, with respect to harmony, could be described as an expression of

Bharucha's theory. The use of dissonance in my compositions can be viewed as a "cry" and can be associated with what scientists refer to as "Motherese"; higher pitches, lower pitches, and sweeping pitch contours, all which violate the expectations or schema one might usually expect to hear in that chord. Some well-known examples include Grieg's

"Peer Gynt" Suite No.l, "Morning Mood", which conveys peacefulness; Albinoni's

"Adagio for Strings in G minor" evokes sadness and tears. Since, according to Deutsch

(2010), prosodic characteristics reflect a person's emotional state, these characteristics would have to be found in individuals with trauma such as a concussion or heart attack.

Bud Powell's body of work before his head trauma had a very typical harmonic sound, found from the schema of 1940's bebop. His use of standard three note voicings in 24 the left hand while playing the melody, or improve, sounded like generic bebop fare.

After his head trauma, Powell's use of odd harmonies and melodic notes caused many to believe he had lost his touch and could no longer be the modernist he once was. I disagree with these allegations wholeheartedly. Powell could very well have been expressing the pain and stress of the many physical traumas he experienced from both the police brutality and the electroshock therapy.

Not only did Bud Powell try to make his music sing, he sang or whined at times in unison with his soloing at times. On the album Bud Plays Bird, the listener can hear Bud crying out at times while soloing. Jack Panksepp, a biopsychologist at Bowling Green

University offers an intriguing explanation to what he calls "chills": "An emergence to excite primitive mammalian regions of the brain that responds to the distress signals of an infant who has suddenly lost its parents" (Shreeve, 1996).

Composer Modest Mussorgsky believed that music and "talk" were, in essence, so similar, that a composer would produce a conversation. He wrote to his friend Rimsky-

Korsakov, "whatever speech I hear, no matter who is speaking... my brain immediately sets to working out musical exposition of this speech" (Deutsch, 2010, p. 38). Professor

Deutsch also believes that when listening to Mussorgsky, one can capture the prosodic elements of his native Russian tongue in his piano and orchestral works.

Mental Illness: Depression, Anxiety and Mania

A traumatizing illness may bring creativity to an individual, but at the cost of suffering from some form of mental psychosis. After my concussion, I immediately

became depressed and had severe bouts of anxiety, resulting in two separate cases of 25 arrhythmia and panic attacks, leading to an overnight stay at the hospital. Within weeks of the incident, however, I composed two new songs, "Subperverse" and "Oscar the

Grouch", which were a departure from my usual bebop sound. Furthermore, immediately after my concussion, being depressed as I could not play the piano for any sustained length of time, I began to restlessly tap rhythms on various surfaces. Eventually I found myself compelled to play the polyrhythm 6/4 against 4/4, with the 6/4 starting on beat two, regardless of the genre of music to which I was listening or playing. I had not previously heard other musicians play this rhythm on beats two and four, nor have I since. Playing in this manner creates perfectly measured back phrasing, as opposed to players who simply play vaguely behind the beat. Furthermore, when I improvise on these beats using the quarter note triplets, my melodic ideas are not restricted by bar lines. They are more free, spilling over bar lines and creating more tension, because, as I am playing the next chord, I am still improvising using the previous bar's chord notes.

Playing these quarter note triplets starting on beats two and four has now become a staple in my improvisation and phrasing, which was not the case prior to my concussion. And since no drugs were administered following my concussion, it is my belief that the change in creative output was solely derived from the trauma and resulting depression and not from any other influences.

My second bout of depression, after the heart attack, differed from the first in that it created a new frame of mind. I was depressed because I had just recovered from the concussion some years prior, only to be set back once again by a heart attack which left me weak and unable to play for a sustained length of time. It seemed unjust that I had to undergo yet another medical trauma, and my new frame of mind was, as a result, largely 26 apathetic. In a way, I gave up because having to recover from this second, more severe, medical trauma, seemed insurmountable. I thought I would never be able to perform the way I did before the heart attack. When I was able to play again I think it was this frame of mind, this lack of caring, caused me to become even more experimental in my harmonies and during my improvisation, because I was not concerned about the listener's opinion, or playing according to traditional jazz expectations. Again, I was playing more

"in the moment", without being concerned about ego.

Author Rollo May explains the link between mental illness and creativity:

Creativity, anxiety and guilt, arise from destruction of the conscious, the known, the established, the conformed. In the creative space, the genius and the psychosis have been closely interlinked throughout history, and creativity appears to carry an inexplicable guilt that causes many artists to suffer mentally at the height of their achievement (May, 1975).

After being subjected to electroconvulsive therapy, which involved strapping down the patient and sending a high electrical current through the temples, Bud Powell became paranoid and anxious, wondering if people on the outside remembered him or if they continued to enjoy his performances. On several occasions Powell would practice the piano by drawing a keyboard on the walls of the Creedmore Institution, in which he had no access to a piano. In this manner, he was able to practice and work out new chords. "Bud would finger chords on the make believe keys and ask his visitors what they thought of the sounds" (Groves, 2001, p. 39).

Author Rollo May explains the dichotomy of artistic creativity bound by technological creativity:

When artistic creativity is bound and limited by rationalized logic, spatial quantitative and/or technical creativity becomes too mechanistic. All internal external and progress stagnate, that is, the individual, and the world, degenerate 27

because new ways of meeting social and personal challenges are arrested (May, 1969).

To make a comparison to Powell's situation, the technological treatments such as the electroconvulsive shocks he received in the mental ward would only stop Powell's natural process of creativity, coupled with the lack of stimulus from the outside world.

In summation, life-changing events such as a medical trauma often inspire the great composers to induce complex emotional states, and this cannot help but be reflected in their music. As a final example, Gustav Mahler's diagnosis of the heart condition known as arrhythmia was denoted at the surface level in his ninth symphony, in which a syncopated leading rhythm exemplifies "the irregular beats of a diseased heart"

(Sandblom, 1999, p. 17); but also the overall tone of Mahler's compositions became much more solemn due to the psychological impact from the knowledge that his condition was fatal.

According to May:

The daimonic is any natural function which has the power to take over the whole person. It is an archetypal of human experience that may usurp the total personality - psychosis being the contemporary name for such daimonic possession. Psychosis has repeatedly shown its presence in the acts of creativity. It is this erotic chaos, the inability to contain and limit the experience of ecstasy that associates depression and madness with music. (May, 1969).

Evidence of the truth of this quote is exemplified by several musicians, such as musician and Beach Boys member Brian Wilson, who became obsessed with odd sounds of animals and created the album Pet Sounds during his bout of mental illness. Robert

Schumann suffered from bouts of depression and produced works intermittently. "From the beginning his emotions were over strung, abnormally so. [Schumann once described that] how, as a child, he stole at night to the piano, a series of chords, weeping bitterly all 28 the while, the pleasure drove him to madness" (Schoenberg, Harold, The Lives of the

Great Composers, p. 170-171.)

Bud Powell's erratic behaviours after the police beating caused many family members and fellow musicians to take note of the change in Powell, for the worse.

He would go for days without speaking to anyone, and on the bandstand, his behaviour was disturbing. Between numbers, or when the other musicians were soloing, he would confront the audience for minutes at a time with a fixed stare and a disconnected leer. There were rumours that he was shooting heroin. (Geoffrey Haydon, Quartet of the Year, p. 82).

Bluenote records owner Alfred Lion was always in attendance to see Powell play when he was in New York. On this particular night, Powell's grandeur illusions of paranoia and angst were at an all time high.

One night he [Alfred Lion] went up to Minton's and joined the audience waiting for Powell to appear. Suddenly, someone rushed onto the stage, opened the piano lid and started making frantic hand movements above the keys, without producing a sound. Unaware this was the great Bud Powell, some people laughed. Others complained to the bouncer, who picked him up by the neck and threw him out the front door. Appalled by the madness and the violence, Lion hurried into the street, but there was no sign: 'There was a car parked near the club entrance. He wasn't in it. I saw an old man with a shopping bag standing at the end of the street. I asked him if he had seen someone run out of the club. He pointed to the car. I looked inside again and no Bud. The old man pointed down. Sure enough, Bud had crept under the car like an injured cat, and was lying there (Hayden, p. 86-87).

Of course, depression is very often linked to mania (as in the case of bipolar affective disorder, in which both features of mania and depression are present). Author and PhD Kay Redfield Jamison explains how mania and creativity are related:

Many of the changes in mood, thinking and perception that characterize the mildly manic states - restlessness, ebullience, expansiveness, irritability, grandiosity, quickened and more finely tuned senses, intensity of emotional experiences, diversity of thought, and rapidity of associational processes - are highly characteristic of creative thought as well... two aspects of thinking, in particular, seem to show up in both creative and hypomanic thought: fluency, rapidity, and flexibility of thought on the one hand, and the ability to combine ideas or categories 29

of thought in order to form new and original connection on the other. (Jamison, 1996, p. 105)

Symptoms of mania that I experienced include: elevated, expansive, or irritable mood, grandiose beliefs (feeling like I had super powers or superlative talents), impulsivity and poor judgment, racing thoughts, tangential speech (repeatedly changing from one topic to another that was scarcely related), and pressured speech (rapid, excessive speech)

(Bipolar Disorder, 2011). For example, my elevated mood and grandiose beliefs made me feel as if I could do anything, which led to greater impulsivity while soloing; I did not work anything out beforehand, and I often did not know where my solos would take me.

The tangential speech and pressured speech I experienced while communicating orally seemed to have manifested in my soloing; combined with the racing thoughts, the tangential and pressured speech produced rapid tempi and rhythms, and melodic ideas that quickly changed, unrelated to the next. These changes caused such a significant difference in my playing that they were remarked upon by several colleagues and teachers of mine.

Drugs and Creativity

Perhaps it was the drug therapy after my heart attack and not the medical trauma itself that affected my subsequent compositional process. According to authors Boso,

Politi, Barale, and Enzo of Neurophysiology and Neurobiology and the Musical

Experience (2006), musical stimuli have been shown to activate specific pathways in several brain areas associated with emotional behaviours such as the insular and cingulate cortex, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdale, and prefrontal cortex. In addition, 30 neurochemical studies have suggested that several biochemical mediators, such as endorphins, endocannabinoids, dopamine, and nitric oxide, may play a role in the musical experience.

The neurotransmitter dopamine is responsible for mood regulation, coordination of movement and being part of the brain's pleasure and reward system. When drug addicts use their drug of choice, when gamblers win a bet, or even when "chocoholics" eat cocoa, this is the neurotransmitter that is released. From a musical and creative perspective, dopamine is also responsible for the "thrills and chills" associated with a particularly pleasant or euphoric musical experience (Levitin, 2006, p. 189).

Musicians such as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane, to name a few, were addicted to heroin at an early stage of their careers (Burns, 2004). Heroin is from a family of drugs made from the unripe seed pods of the opium poppy. Opium's active principles reside in its alkaloids, of which the most important is morphine. These alkaloids, also known as opiates, exert their main effects on the brain and spinal chord.

Their principal action is to suppress pain. They also alleviate anxiety, induce relaxation, drowsiness and sedation, and promote a euphoric mood. Nonetheless, they are also extremely addictive (Britannica, 2008, p. 287).

How opiates achieve these effects is through a close resemblance to the "pleasure centre" molecules, endorphins. Opiate alkaloids are able to occupy the same receptor sites which endorphins usually occupy. Therefore the individual is able to feel the

"pleasure and chills" sensation whenever the drug is administrated (Britannica, 2008, p.

288). 31

When I suffered a heart attack, the physicians administered morphine (opiate alkaloid) for the onset of pain that I had experienced. According to an interview conducted by myself on May 13, 2010 with anaesthesiologist Dr. Ryszard Kowalewski,

Department of Cardiac Sciences, LEBIN Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, "the sympathetic nervous system and morphine would definitely be a contributing factor to any creativity which may have been reported between the 24-48 hour period." Although I composed the song "Neuroplasticity" in the hospital 3-4 days after the heart attack, the kernels of creativity may have been directly influenced by the morphine initially administered. Other drugs administered at the time were blood thinners and beta blockers.

Beta blockers have been called "musicians' underground drug" (Harby, Karla, "Beta

Blockers and Performance Anxiety in Musicians"). Beta blockers were administered to me in order to block norepinephrine (adrenaline hormone) from binding to the receptors that cause the symptoms of the "fight or flight" response. When administered to a musician about to perform, beta blockers could allow the performer to play at his or her best, without the anxiety caused by "fight or flight" symptoms. For this reason, in the classical community, beta blockers have been widely used. A study reported in 1986 of approximately two thousand musicians in major American symphony orchestras showed that 27% reported taking beta blockers regularly. 11% of the musicians had a prescription for occasional use (concerts, or auditions), and the remaining percentage reported occasional use, but without a doctor's prescription (Harby).

For jazz musicians, there exists a dichotomy when taking drugs to suppress the negative affects of adrenaline, which can also fuel the spontaneous creativity known as improvisation, an essential component of their music. I began taking a very low dosage of 32 the beta blocker Bisoporol as a part of his medicinal therapy following the heart attack.

Since then, I have noticed a difference in my performance ability, especially in front of an audience, because I am much more relaxed and I therefore take more chances and risks while playing for this reason. The relaxing effects of the drug have also had an effect on my creative process, for example, I take more time with the compositional process, refining sections instead of rushing to complete them, and treating each section as a composition in itself.

Bud Powell's prescription for the drug Largactyl for the treatment of schizophrenia is another example of how drugs not only block the effects of dopamine, but alter performance and creativity. Largactyl, also known as an anti-psychotic drug, can reduce agitation, delusions, hallucinations, and suicidal tendencies (Britannica, 2008, p.

297). Powell's use of this drug shortly after his run-in with the police could also be the beginning of a physical breakdown as a side effect of this drug. Powell's performances had been inconsistent and his phrasing, timing and creative improvisations had stagnated during the years when he was using Largactyl (Paudras, 1998). The side effects of these types of anti-psychotic drugs are loss of muscular coordination and slowing of reflexes.

Other side effects such as psychosis and jaundice both of which affected Powell, are very common (Britannica, 2008, p. 298),

In his book, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, neurologist Oliver Sacks discusses a brilliant musician with Tourette's syndrome, a disease of excessive involuntary movements and uncontrollable impulsiveness. Treated with Haloperidol, a drug which blocks dopamine from acting on receptors, the man became calm and relatively normal, but his creative jazz drive left him (Sacks, 2010). 33

Other factors which may contribute to a musician's creative output are neuroplasticity, memory and perception, the function of sleep in motor learning, early childhood training of a musician, and the psyche and training of an improv-based musician.

Neuroplasticity

Over the last twenty years, new data have shown that the brain is not a hardwired machine as it was once believed to be. "It was once thought that the brain was hardwired after a period in development; however, it is now accepted that the brain has a remarkable capacity to modify its structural and functional organization throughout the life of a human" (Wan, 2010, p. 566). If the brain gets injured, it may be possible for the neurons to find a different path to reconnect and keep up with the demands of the mind. This type of malleability shows how, even after an injury, the brain's ongoing neural networks can stay intact if wired differently. "Neuroplasticity is the capacity of local neural networks and neural systems to change their topography and local architecture in response to new information, sensory stimulation development, damage, or dysfunction" (Britannica,

2008, p. 32).

This valuable information could be taken into consideration in the account of my concussion. After the injury, I felt no creative impulses for weeks after the incident, as a result of the pain from headaches and subsequent inability to concentrate. It was only after the head/brain injury began to heal that I was able to start the creative process again, however, the process was coloured by changes in my personality (resulting after the concussion), which may have resulted in a new direction in sonority. 34

Rapid change or organization of the brain's cellular or neural networks can take place in many different forms and under many circumstances. These can include instances such as when the brain experiences actual physical damage from a head injury or stroke and the brain attempts to compensate for lost activity. This is known as

"compensatory masquerade" and can be described as the brain devising an alternative strategy for carrying out a task when the initial strategy cannot be followed due to impairment (Britannica, 2008, p. 329). "If certain key neural pathways are blocked, then the brain uses older pathways to go around them" (Deutsch, 2010, p. 9).

It was previously thought that the brain has a window of development that begins in infancy and ends between eight years and puberty. Within this time frame, language development can occur at a higher intensity, compared to post puberty, when, for example, a person learning a second language is rarely able to achieve mother-tongue proficiency. Since music and language maps overlap and are found throughout both hemispheres of the brain (rather than being localized), and the brain circuits that process speech music overlap, music can be viewed as a language. Since I began learning jazz music before the age of five, an age well within the aforementioned timeline, or "critical period of plasticity", the type of brain trauma might have been less detrimental to the brain as it was more easily able to form crucial connections as a result of the early formation of these neural pathways.

According to neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, as humans age and use their native language more often, the more the linguistic map space becomes dominated by this native language (such as music, if one considers music a language). Interestingly, in children who are bilingual, brain scans show that two languages share a single large map, 35 a library of sounds from both languages that get processed evenly by the brain (Doidge,

2007).

This type of processing would make a recovery from a traumatic brain injury easier for music patients because music maps are being triggered, which are already overlapped with speech and language maps. Thus, the language of music can still be processed by the injured individual due to the plasticity of the brain.

Gestalt Principles

According to neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, the Gestalt principle of "good continuation" has a profound effect on how the brain articulates configurations of elements, which come together to form a unified form but cannot be understood in terms of their parts.

The harmonies in my new compositions use melody notes not found in the scales from which the chords are derived. For example, in the songs "Oscar the Grouch,"

"Subperverse," "My Cardinal Infarction," "Prosodic Cues," and "Neuroplasticity," the use of the flattened 9th or flattened 7th note on a Maj7 chord sounds very dissonant and obtuse. This grouping is audibly accepted despite this dissonance because of what

Gesthalt principle psychologist Max Wertheimer describes as "Factors of Proximity and

Similarity."

The factor of proximity is achieved by the positioning of the notes in the dissonant chord, in the author's case, in the Maj7 chord which could contain either a flattened 7th or a flattened 9th. It is my opinion that the ear accepts this dissonance for two reasons: a) because the flattened 7th is in close proximity to a major sixth interval within 36 the chord, which does not interfere with the major 7th interval, and b) if positioned with the major 7th in the bass and the flattened 7th in the top note, a minor 2nd interval is thereby avoided. Working with much the same principal, another dissonant chord featured throughout my post-trauma music is a rootless Maj9th chord starting in third inversion with a flattened ninth substitution for the natural 9th.

The factor of similarity can also be applied to the same examples if one considers the flattened 9th as being a variation on the pitch of the natural 9th. The factor of similarity entails the tendency of like parts to band together. If several stimuli are conjointly operative, there is a tendency for a pattern composed of like stimuli to appear. This parameter can be observed from any tonal sequence with similar emphasis, such as notes of same pitch, or volume, or uniform assonance. The factor of similarity can also come into play when chords not normally used as substitutions work by the sheer essence of certain building blocks that bind a commonality between the original and new chord. For example, in the song "Subperverse," the A section begins with an BmMaj7/fm7 polychord, which has a A# as a melody note. This is followed by a Bb7 (#11, b9) chord, which progresses to the next chord a whole tone below, AmMaj7/Ebm7. The Gestalt occurs in the final A section. Instead of repeating the BmMaj7/fm7, I use Bbmin7(b5), and then move to Eb7(b9). After that, the progression remains the same as in the original

A section. The Bbmin7(b5) works well as a substitution for the BmMaj7/fm7 chord because of the commonality of the enharmonic melody note used in the first and last A sections. Another example of the factor of similarity occurs in Thelonious Monk's composition "Thelonious," in which he decided not to use the chords in Gershwin's "I

Got Rhythm," but instead uses a cycle of fifths beginning on bVI of the key centre. Since 37 the melody notes remain the same, to my ear, this solidifies the relationship and acceptance between chord and melody note, regardless of dissonance to the ear. The composition "Fantasy Impromptu" by Frederic Chopin uses two different metres, which are mapped over one another; 4/4 over 6/4. The effect of the melody can only be achieved only when the desired tempo is achieved. This is similar to Chopin's "Harp

Prelude," in which the overlapping metres played at a faster tempo bring out the melody notes. In these two cases, when the uniform elements are positioned and played properly at the quick tempo, one can hear the melody. This grouping is partly an automatic process, which means that much of it happens rapidly in our brains and without conscious awareness (Levitin, 2006). Levitin says, "sounds group too, most people can't isolate the sounds of common streams or like-common streams of notes, they form a group in the brain" (Levitin, 2006, p. 78). Therefore, even dissonant notes that are substitutions for the brain's anticipation of correct notes cause a violation of expectations but are accepted nonetheless to the ear. This is also known as unconscious inference (Levitin, 2006, p. 79).

Unconscious inference can be seen in Bud Powell's rendition of Richard Rodger's

"My Heart Stood Still." Powell's use of dissonance violates the listener's expectations of a more traditional harmony. Instead of using an Fmaj6 chord for the first chord of the song, Powell uses Fmaj7(b9). Again, the b9 is a substitute for the natural ninth; however, because it is in close proximity to the natural ninth, the ear accepts the substitution as a variation of the ninth. Also, Powell plays the chord as a solid, not broken, therefore the dissonant note is not as obtuse. This is known as simultaneous onsets. Since the simultaneous onsets are being struck at the same time, sounds of a similar volume group are being grouped together to keep a unified whole or form (Levitin, 2006). 38

In summation, in comparison with INhER Demons, my new compositions feature new, more dissonant harmonies and less melodic lines; however, are these developments a result of the medical traumas, or are they merely a result of the brain's natural process of grouping elements in close proximity or similarity?

Memory

Although I would claim that my compositions are original and not reworked versions of another musician's material, contrary evidence may supersede this notion.

Author Daniel J. Levitin (2006) purports: "The Gestalt psychologists said that every experience leaves a trace or residue with the brain" (p. 138). In order to validate if the traumas experienced by the author directly influenced his compositions, the role of memory must be examined.

An analysis of my compositions show that, despite being original to myself, they are in fact descended from the strong influences of great composers such as Bud Powell and Frederic Chopin, whose compositions may have served as prototypes for my own.

Prototype Theory is derived from the constructivist view of memory which states:

We construct a memory representation of reality out of the relationships between objects and ideas but not necessarily details about the objects themselves. Many details are filled in or constructed on the spot. The "gist" or abstract generalization is stored as a memory trace (Levitin, 2006, p. 135).

However, researchers Edward Smith and Douglas Medin propose an alternate theory known as "Exemplar Theory". Exemplar Theory states that every experience, including every word or song heard every object seen leaves a "residue" and is encoded in memory. In this view, "memory is like a recorder or digital video camera, preserving 39 all or most of our experiences accurately, and with more perfect fidelity" (Levitin, 2006, p. 135).

My compositions "Prosodic Cues" and "Neuroplasticity," both composed after my heart attack, are concrete examples of how both Prototype Theory and Exemplar

Theory govern throughout. "Prosodic Cues," although not in the same key centre as the of Bud Powell's "I'll Keep Loving You," shares many similarities such as harmonic progression, and parity of voicing structures. "Neuroplasticity" shares the same key centre as Chopin's "Fantasie Impromptu" and also retains many of its melodic contours.

Other notable influences throughout "Neuroplasticity" include Maurice Ravel and

George Gershwin.

At times, both of these compositions retain the same elements of their original influences, which would show support for the Exemplar Theory. At other times, the constructivist's gist is used as only a backdrop of influence and I expand on an original theme. Both compositions do not exemplify one theory exclusively, but could be considered hybrids of both. This is known as the Multiple Trace Memory Model.

Each experience we have is preserved with high fidelity in our long term memory system. Memory distortions and confabulations occur when, in the process of retrieving a memory, we either run into interference from other traces that are competing for our attention - traces with slightly different details - or some of the details of the original memory trace have degraded due to normally occurring neural biological processes (Levitin, 2006, p. 163).

In his book Embracing the Wide Sky, writer Daniel Tammet quotes psychologist

Endel Tulving, a leader in memory research who supports the Multiple Trace Memory

Model, in the following statement: "Our memories are not so much objective snapshots as they are subjective reformulations of our past experiences, shaped and influenced to a 40 large extent by our particular thoughts and feelings at the time we form a memory"

(Tammet, 2009, p.61).

The musical lexicon

The musical lexicon is a representational system derived from Dr. Isabell Pertez that contains all the representations of the specific musical phrases to which one has been exposed during one's lifetime. The same system also keeps a record of any new incoming musical input. Accordingly, successful recognition of a familiar tune depends on a selection procedure that takes place in the musical lexicon. The output of the musical lexicon can feed two different components, depending on task requirements. If the goal is to sing a song like "Happy Birthday," the corresponding melody, represented in the musical lexicon, will be paired with its associated lyrics that are stored in the phonological lexicon and will be tightly integrated and planned in a way that is suitable for vocal production. If the task requires retrieving non-musical information about a musical selection, such as naming the tune or retrieving a related experience from memory, the associated knowledge stored in the 'associative memories' component will be invoked. (Figure 3), (Peretz, 2003). The model comprises over ten processing components: tonal encoding (the knowledge of scale tones within a central tone), interval analysis, and contour analysis (pitch direction between neighboring tones) all relate to pitch organization. The remaining include rhythm analysis (fragmentation of music into temporal units based exclusively on duration value), and meter analysis (extraction of an underlying temporal rhythm with reference to strong and weak beats), which deal with temporal organization; emotional expression analysis (recognition and experience of 41 emotion within the music), musical lexicon (bank of musical lyric exposure), vocal plan formation (results in singing), associative memories (any related nonmusical information), and two more relating primarily to speech .When the brain is injured, such as in my case at the left temporal lobe just above the left ear, components or modules of the musical lexicon will also be damaged and therefore the processing components may malfunction and possibly cause musical semantic memories to be distorted . This may result in summoning of musical memories which are not prototypes of the original memories and as a result may influence any compositions which may occur thereafter by the trauma induced.

Since I began my formal music education before the age of five, several biological factors would have played a key role in the development of my brain and memory. These factors may very well have affected my early compositional process, and could be more influential in my later compositional styles than the medical traumas I experienced.

Motor Learning

According to authors Richard Schmidt and Timothy Lee (2005), the symbiotic relationship between learning and memory play vital roles as the foundations for permanent change in the capability for skilled behaviour or habit.

Since, according to Schmidt and Lee, "psychologists define learning in terms of memory... Something has been learned when a person has a memory of it" (2005, p. 42

315), it can be said that memory and habit are very similar constructs, especially if one has learned a skill and can perform it again after the original practice session.

Motor learning is a process of acquiring the capability for producing skilled actions. It is the underlying events, occurrences, or changes that happen when people become skilled at some type of task as a direct result of practice or experience (Schmidt

& Lee, 2005). My innumerable hours of practice at the piano, including composing, at a young age, engrained habits which worked symbiotically and exponentially with new information learned thereafter. Since the skill of composition was being developed at such a young age, the brain and motor memory would become familiar with the process.

Therefore, the compositional process became easier and more natural as I matured. In addition to my early musical training, which utilized motor memory, empirical evidence suggests that learning to play a musical instrument as a child can result in long lasting neuroanatomical changes in the brain's physical structure (Wan, 2010). More importantly, musicians who began musical training before the age of 7 developed a significantly larger corpus callosum compared to musicians who started to train later than age 7. (Figure 1, and Figure 2) According to neurologist Gottfried Schlaug of the

Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany, the corpus callosum, the central bundle of nerve fibres connecting the two brain hemispheres, was significantly larger in musicians who had trained at an early age than non-musicians (Shreeve, 1996). Schlaug also states: "Musical training early in life literally lays down either more wiring or better insulated wiring, which presumably speeds up motor communication between the two hemispheres" (Shreeve, 1996). Most importantly, Schlaug's team found anatomical differences in the brains of musicians with perfect pitch. These musicians had a larger 43 planum temporale than usual compared with non-musicians. The planum temporale is involved in categorizing sound and perception of both music and language (Shreeve,

1996). (Figure 4)

It is possible that these anatomical factors were more influential on my compositional process post-concussion and heart attack, than the actual medical events themselves. In fact, if, as Shlaug says, "musical training early in life literally lays down either more wiring or better insulated wiring..." then the damage incurred by the concussion may have been less traumatic than if I had started training later in life.

Perceptual Training

Following the concussion and heart attack, I could not play the piano for weeks as a result of pain and lack of concentration. Therefore I engaged in what is known as perceptual practice or training. Authors Schmidt and Lee also say "perceptual training technique represents a good alternative when physical practice is not possible or practical" (2005, p. 329). Studies carried out by Robert Zattore have shown that imagining music can indeed activate the auditory cortex almost as strongly as listening to it (Sacks, 2007). Musicians can also hear their instrument during mental practice (Sacks,

2007). Sacks quotes Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, who says:

Mental simulation of movements activates some of the same central neural structures required for the performance of the actual movements. In so doing, mental practice alone seems to be sufficient to promote the modulation of neural circuits involved in the early stages of motor skill learning. This modulation not only results in marked improvement in performance, but also seems to place the subjects at an advantage for further skill learning with minimal physical practice. The combination of mental and physical practice [he adds] leads to greater performance improvement than does physical practice alone, a phenomenon for which our findings provide a physiological explanation (Sacks, 2007, p.32). 44

Many musicians have engaged in perceptual training. For example, as previously mentioned, Bud Powell drew a picture of a keyboard on the wall in order to practice during his stay at the mental institution. On more than one occasion he even showed visitors his voicings on the depiction of the keyboard, asking them their opinion on the

'sound' of the voicing, thus suggesting that the auditory cortex was activated by the process of this perceptual training.

Interestingly, the exposure to song or an affinity to an artist's style can cause the brain to process what Sacks calls involuntary musical imagery. When an artist's styles or compositions are exposed to a person for weeks or months on end, the musical circuits or neural networks in the brain become supersaturated, and the brain will replay the music with no stimulus, such as a premeditated memory recall (Sacks, 2007). For example my affinity for Frederic Chopin's compositions, especially for "Fantasie Impromptu", dates back to my early childhood when both my father and my piano teacher had suggested I listen to recordings of Chopin's compositions.

"Fantasie Impromptu", introduced to me before the age of seven, became my favourite classical composition, and may have been, as Sacks describes, "playing there quietly without [his] even noticing it" (Sacks, 2007, p. 34). Given this information, my composition "Neuroplasticity", which has many elements of the piece "Fantasie

Impromptu", may or may not have been composed as a result of a background musical memory of Chopin's piece playing inside my subconscious.

The same idea would apply to the composer Bud Powell, the compositions of whom I have studied extensively by way of listening to countless recordings, as well as analyzing and lifting solos, the purpose of which was to create a likeness of sound in my 45 own musical style. For example, Powell's composition "Oblivion" is clearly an influence on my own composition "Subperverse", and Powell's "I'll Keep Loving You" is the influence on my composition "Prosodic Cues".

Sometimes small fragments of the influential composition may loop into the brain and have a direct influence on a composer. Sacks explains further:

Sometimes normal musical imagery crosses a line and becomes, so to speak, pathological, as when a certain fragment of music repeats itself incessantly, sometimes maddeningly, for days on end. These repetitions- often a short, well defined phrase or theme of three or four bars-are apt to go on for hours or days, circling in the mind, before fading away. This endless repetition and fact that the music in question may be irrelevant or trivial, not to one's taste, or even hateful, suggest a coercive process, that the music has entered and subverted a coercive process, that the music has entered and subverted a part of the brain, forcing it to fire repetitively and autonomously (as may happen with a tic or seizure (Sacks, 2007, p.41).

This raises the obvious question of whether my new and profoundly different compositions are merely a result of my changing listening habits; if I were to begin listening to another composer extensively over a period of time, would the style of my compositions 'coincidentally' evolve again?

Sleep

A major consequence arising from both the heart attack and concussion was the inability to play the piano as a result of weakness and lack of concentration. Before the traumas, I habitually practiced between three and six hours per day. After the traumas, sleep was one of the most important things that physicians prescribed in order to achieve recuperation. Previously having only slept between five and six hours every day, I began to sleep between nine and ten hours every night. Subsequently, my compositions after the 46 concussion had a lazier feel. They did not feel as rushed as my original compositions on the album INhER Demons.

During the years between the concussion and the heart attack (2007-2009), I began losing sleep again, but did not compose any major new works. After the heart attack, rest was once again prescribed by doctors in order to speed recovery, as well as other, stronger medications. Having gained more rest, but (temporarily) losing the strength and the mental focus to practice, my new compositions (composed while in the hospital) went in a new direction once again. These new compositions were much more technically challenging to play, and at the same time, more harmonically adventurous than my previous body of work. The following question arises: Could adequate sleep be the catalyst for the consolidation of ideas garnered from hours of practice, leading to brand new ideas?

Author M.P Walker writes:

Sleep in humans has shown to trigger significant overnight learning enhancements, whereby performance is selectively improved across sleeping intervals, while equivalent waking periods confer no such performance benefit. It can trigger significant improvements in both performance speed and accuracy, while equivalent periods of time awake do not result in any such learning enhancements.

This information spurs another question: Is it possible that increased rest is the factor that accounts for the significant changes in the composer's compositional style, rather than the effects of a head or heart trauma?

Natural Evolution

Dr. Paul Fedak, cardiologist at the Libon Institute in Alberta, suggested to the author in a personal interview that perhaps as a result of the author's training beginning at 47 such a young age, he has subsequently gained a wealth of knowledge and honed his craft to such a level that it is only a normal process of musical evolution for his compositions to have changed in character so dramatically over time (July, 2010). This is particularly true for a jazz musician, who is expected to express himself/herself during a solo; the jazz musician constantly works at the art of improvisation (in contrast to a musician who does not improvise). During improvisation the soloist is continuously transforming the piece by changing the melody, or reharmonizing the chord progressions, or incorporating different rhythms, among other things. The skill of improvisation is akin to the process of composition; composition is a longer, more drawn out process than improvisation, which is a spontaneous process, but both draw on an established vocabulary, meeting and violating listener's expectations.

Dr. Levitin writes that 10,000 hours of practice is necessary to master a skill over a lifetime (Levitin, 2006). Upon reflection, I surmise that I have accumulated close to

20,000 hours of practice. Perhaps my ability to explore and create new tonalities, rhythmic figures, styles and tempi in my compositions are only a result of my experience in improvisation as a result of early childhood training in jazz, and not a result of any head or heart trauma. However, my change in composition was more sudden and not gradual.

The creative process may also be a natural phenomena predestined to those whom are already highly creative individuals. According to Ray Kurzweil's revolutionary book The Age of Intelligent Machines, published in 1990, creativity is often associated with problem solving, science, and the arts. People often view creative thinking as something out of the ordinary, as a mode of reasoning in which completed thoughts 48 suddenly spring to mind without being cued, thoughts perhaps having nothing at all to do with what the thinker was working on at the time the thought occurred. Often people implicitly assume that creativity represents some divine, unconscious, or other inspiration out of the control of one's ordinary thought processes. Actual case studies of scientific and artistic creativity, however, support the idea that creativity springs not from any mystical source but from a certain set of cognitive skills. There is no principled distinction between creative and less creative thinking other than the degree to which this set of skills is applied. Highly creative individuals simply have these skills better developed than do the less creative.

Conclusion

How do head and heart traumas affect a musician's creative output? Research has exposed multiple factors with varying degrees of influence in the matter. Psychological factors such as the concepts of self-efficacy, creativity as a coping mechanism, and artist projections cannot be denied; mental stress can cause people to do extraordinary feats that might normally lie outside their scope of achievement. However, these factors can be difficult to accurately measure; some might argue the concept of self-efficacy to be a romanticization of the artist's will to create, overcoming any obstacle. Another factor is depression. Depression often leads to complex emotional states, which can inspire the musician to greater heights of creativity or can stifle his/her drive to create. The changes in mood, thinking and perception that characterize the mildly manic states are highly characteristic of creative thought as well. Physical factors such as brain damage causing 49

the condition known as amusia make musical creativity unachievable as the sufferer simply ceases to process or understand music.

It cannot be argued that many of the artists discussed in this thesis experienced a

new direction in their careers from a creative perspective after experiencing head or heart

trauma. What their cases generally have in common is a tendency for a damaged brain or

heart to produce markedly different and often a more free form of creative output. To

judge a composition or musical performance's aesthetic value is fairly subjective, so it is

difficult to state definitively that these artists, including the author, produced "better" art

after suffering their respective head or heart traumas. But their art certainly changed and

cases like these indicate that trauma of the head and heart often changes long-established

artistic habits or unlock a previously unknown creative impulse. However, is this result

of the traumas or a combination of other, less overt factors? In the case of myself, was it

the concussion or the resulting lack of sleep that affected my creativity? Was it the heart

attack or the resulting drug therapy that inspired my new compositions? Perhaps

compositions by other composers became an influence, or maybe, even more simply, my

years of experience naturally led me to evolve as a composer. What is certain is that after

my concussion, my compositions distinctly changed in several ways: I focused

substantially more on harmony rather than on the melodic contours of a single melody, to

the point that the harmonic progressions dictated the melody; imitation between

melodies, rhythms and harmonies were more apparent; and finally, the rhythmic figure of

using the polyrhythm 6/4 against 4/4 starting on the second and fourth beats, became a

new staple in my playing and improvisation. This latter change is of particular note as I

have yet to hear another musician improvise using this rhythmic figure in the same 50 manner. After my heart attack, my depression led to greater apathy about my playing; I experimented much more with harmonies and dissonances because I thought I would never achieve the same performance ability as I had before the heart attack, and I let go of my ego and insecurities. Also, after the heart attack I underwent drug therapy; beta blockers caused a difference in my performance ability due to lowered blood pressure, blocked adrenalin, and an increased feeling of relaxation, leading to my taking more risks while playing.

It is difficult to pinpoint any factor as the underlying cause of the change in my creative process. Although it may seem inconclusive, it is my belief that it was a combination of all of the aforementioned elements that served as a catalyst in the creation of my new body of work. 51

Figure. 1. Post hoc tests revealing a significantly larger anterior corpus callosum in musicians with early commencement compared to non-musician (Schlaug, 2001)

Nor?-musician

(ma'e)

(mate) (female)

Musicians

Figure 2. Corpus Callosum measurements: musical training before and after 7 years old (Schlaug, 2001).

Total CC Anterior half of Posterior half of area CC area* CC areaf All musicians (n = 30) 687 ±85 371 ±46 314±43 Musicians with commencement of training 709 ± 81 384 ±42 321 ±44 <7 years of age (n — 21) Musicians with commencement of training 637 ±77 340 ± 43 297 ±38 >7 years of age (n = 9) Controls (n = 30) 649 t 88 344 ±48 305 ±43 52

Figure 3. (A, B). Corpus callosum of a musician with early commencement of musical training 52 (A) and of a nonmusician (B). The images show a larger anterior half of the callosum in the musician (Huang, Jancke, Schlaug, Staiger, & Steinmetz, 1995|

CORPUS CALLOSUM IN MUSICIANS

Figure 4. Planum Temporale size differences: musicians vs. non-musicians (Huang,

Jancke, Shlaug, & Steinmetz, 1995).

PT size (mm2) Subjects Age 6PTt Left Right

Musicians (n - 30) 26(4) -0.36 (0.25)* 1063(189) 750 (187) Perfect pitch (p = 11) 27(5) -0.57(0.21)" 1097(202) 611 (105) No perfect pitch (n = 19) 26(4) -0.23(0.17) 1043(183) 830(178) Nonmusicians (n = 30) 26(3) -0.23 (0.24) 896(236) 736 (263) 53

Implications of research

According to Brain Injury Association of America, "Living with Brain Injury", 2003, when a brain injury occurs, the functions of the neurons, nerve tracts, or sections of the brain can be affected. If the neurons and nerve tracts are affected, they can be unable or have difficulty carrying the messages that tell the brain what to do. This can result in Thinking Changes, Physical Changes, and Personality and Behavioural Changes.

These changes can be temporary or permanent. They may cause impairment or a complete inability to perform a function. Some possible changes are described below.

Figure 5. Thinking Changes. (2003).

Memory Communication Perception

Decision making Reading and writing skills Thought flexibility

Planning Thought processing speed Safety awareness

Sequencing Problem solving skills New learning

Judgement Organization

Attention Self-perception 54

Figure 6. Physical Changes

Muscle movement Taste Balance

Muscle coordination Smell Speech

Sleep Touch Seizures

Hearing Fatigue Sexual Functioning

Vision Weakness

Figure 7. Personality and Behavioural Changes

Social skills Self-monitoring remarks or actions Frustration

Stress Emotional control and mood swings Reduced self-esteem

Denial Appropriateness of behaviour Irritability or agitation

Motivation Self-centeredness Coping skills

Depression Anger management

Anxiety Excessive laughing or crying

Function of the Brain

The brain is divided into main functional sections, called lobes. These sections or brain lobes are called the Frontal Lobe, Temporal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Occipital Lobe, The

Cerebellum, and the Brain Stem. Each has a specific function, as described below. 55

Figure 8. Frontal Lobe Functions

Attention and concentration Self-monitoring Organization

Speaking (expressive language) Motor Planning Initiation

Awareness of abilities and limitations Personality Mental flexibility

Inhibition of behaviour Emotions Problem Solving

Planning and anticipation Judgement

Figure 9. Temporal Lobe Functions

Memory Understanding language (receptive language) Sequencing

Hearing Organization

Figure 10. Parietal Lobe Functions

Sense of touch Spatial perception

Differentiation (identification) of size, shapes, and colors Visual perception

Figure 11. Occipital Lobe Functions

Vision 56

Figure 12. Cerebellum Lobe Functions

Balance Skilled motor activity

Coordination Visual perception

Figure 13. Brain Stem Functions

Breathing Arousal and consciousness Attention and concentration

Heart rate Sleep and wake cycles

Functions of the Right and Left Hemispheres

The functional sections or lobes of the brain are also divided into right and left sides. The right side and the left side of the brain are responsible for different functions. General patterns of dysfunction can occur if an injury is on the right or left side of the brain.

Figure 14. Effects of Injuries of the Right Side of Brain

Visual-spatial impairment

Visual memory deficits

Left neglect (inattention to the left side of the body)

Decreased awareness of deficits

Altered creativity and music perception

Loss of "the big picture" type of thinking

Decreased control over left-sided body movements 57

Figure 15. Effects of Injuries of the Left Side of Brain

Difficulties in understanding language (receptive language)

Difficulties in speaking or verbal output (expressive language)

Catastrophic reactions (depression, anxiety)

Verbal memory deficits

Impaired logic

Sequencing difficulties

Decreased control over right-sided body movements 58

Figure 16. A Modular Model of Music Processing (Peretz, 2003)

Each box represents a processing component, and arrows represent pathways of information flow or communication between processing components. A neurological anomaly may either damage a processing component (box) or interfere with the flow of information between two boxes.

Acoustic input

Acoustic analysis

Acouctie-to- Motor phonc logical nn,itys>s conversation 59

Figure 17. Myocardial Infarction (Bianco, 2010)

A Myocardial Infarction occurs when a coronary artery is completely obstructed and no blood flows past the obstruction. As a result, that part of the heart muscle dies.

This obstruction is caused by a clot and occurs in an artery that previously had atherosclerotic plaque (Bianco, "How Heart Disease Works").

Prevlcus Elh9ro8d«otlc plaqu* Mary r

The diagrams above and below are exemplifications of my own personal experience with a Myocardial Infarction. The area affected is also the same (Left Anterior descending) treated with a bare metal stent via catheterization. This process is known as an angioplasty.

Figure 18. Angioplasty (Bianco, 2010) Figure 19. Stent in the Left Anterior Descending Artery

Images taken by GE Healthcare's Light Speed VCT show a stent in the left anterior descending artery. (Hinesly, 2006) The procedure shown below (Angioplasty) is the procedure I received in my left anterior descending artery. 61

Disclaimer

The inclusion of chord symbols in the following compositions are not meant as, and do not convey, accurate representations of the notated voicings but serve to facilitate improvisation and offer alternate harmonic options which may be musically attractive to performers. 62

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Harmonic Analysis of The BUDist MONK

The BUDist MONK is in the key of Eb, in 4/4 time, with a metronomic speed of

120 beats per minute, the quarter note receiving one beat. The piece is based on the 1933 standard I Cover the Waterfront, written by Johnny Green. An important difference in the

The BUDist MONK is that the V7 chord in the original tune is often substituted by a bV7/

V7 chord. The form of this piece is AABA. The guitar and piano play in unison during the A sections. In the second bar the antecedent, or "question" phrase begins. It is answered in the consequent phrase in bar 3. In bar 18, the Bb7b9 chord in the antecedent phrase played by the guitar, is striking in that the harmony hangs until the b9 is resolved by the solo piano in the B section.

In the A section, the up-beats are stressed on the second half of beat 4 in the A sections, thus creating a feeling of a longer opening melody in the ear of the listener. The melody is further highlighted by the fact that there are no harmonic changes taking place during the accompaniment in first two bars.

The last chord of each A section is a D/ Eb chord, which, essentially, is an

EbdimM7 chord. This gives the listener a feeling of instability.

The melody of the bridge of The BUDist MONK was originally composed as an improvisation of the chord changes, then recorded and notated afterwards. This can be seen by the conjuct intervals used, as my own improvisations, influenced by the bebop genre, are more linear by nature. 65

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25 Bdim/AminV D7 Adim/GminV C^aiD Gdim/FminV E7<#"> EfcMaj9 Dmin7Q>» G7 Cm '. i,8«gfr m m 1 tersg # .L. N h l,Jjg f 'fTTT [T i## $ JO Cm Cm7 Cm6 D73) BbMaj7 Dbm Gb7 3 St w si

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3 3 r~T~ iJP^ rr rn\ n j ^B4= \§ M lii i> bCi'r > 1^ -.TT^iJn —=-#--tiI" • H-f^n "" 1 -*-*—ir^g =3=-N^ _ Sr3 I;J J|/J 'C!ir* » 9sus ^3= \&$ IT Js /"j I j j"l n i. h ,J - 1 3 M pbfe J J $ ^ ^ I 3 s -41 • "• 1idbi- ' ^ kg: • -g- •* *1:. I» n ^ c rbr rf J i h$11—> i " ^ LT cj. j' ' V ' =*

42 BMaj9 E7*» AbMaj9 G7

d . 8 M lZ-r-~rl "7—rT—5UW « 1 ^ r ifcj5>- J. ' " 67

Harmonic Analysis of The Immaculate Deception

The Immaculate Deception is in the key of Bb, in 4/4 time, with a metronomic speed of 132 beats per minute, the quarter note receiving one beat. The form of this piece is AABA. It is reverting in nature, in the sense that the piece returns to its first phrase (the

A section) after a digression. The melody is a combination of conjuct and disjunct intervals. After the tonic chord in bar 1, one might expect to hear a BbdimM7 chord, as per the swing harmonic tradition, thus producing a more archaic sound. The melody in the second measure instead features a more modern sound, in the bebop tradition, moving from a Db chord to a Gb7 chord. The Gb7 is the tritone substitution of the II chord (if it were to function as a secondary dominant).

The B section starts in measure 25 on the VIIm7b5 (Am7b5), which shares the same notes and essentially performs the same function as the IIm6 chord. I use the Bdim7 chord in the treble clef and the Am7b5 in the bass clef, which forms a polychord. This initiates a cycle of fifths using the same sequence, descending by whole tones until it resolves to EbM7. Next, a II-V-I chord progression in the key of C minor initiates a second cycle of fifths, descending in whole tones until it reaches the climax chord of

F#dim / G (add 5). 68

J=240 Lima Beans

Bbm/Db FVC Bbm F/A Db/Ab Ab/Gb Db/F C7E CW/F

rf 3e!

•9- 7 7 tj3 ^ F7q>») Bb Em A Ab® GmV c7

— n

13 F7 Bbm Eb7 Ab Ab/C &liW *' - q

w 1W> J

22 Db Ddim Ab/Eb A13 Fm6 Bbm Fm6 GmV C7 ? Lk b> - ^

Improvised Melody Guitar Sill

5/ Db7 C7 Fm6 Bbm Fm6 Bb7 Eb7

7 9 40 Eb7 Fm Fm/Eb k i? =z=

Improvised Melody Piano SSI

47 Bbm/Db F7/C Bbm F7/A Db/Ab Ab/Gb Db/F C7E r. * as 3EF •^r 1§: 69

9 52 CO, )/p F7Q>«) Bb7 Em A7 AbMaj7 Fine

1 tpo *

5 iti ^ 70

Analysis of Lima Beans

The piece Lima Beans is in the key of Ab, in 4/4 time, with a tempo of 240 beats per minute, the quarter note receiving one beat. The melody of the piece, aside from the introduction, is completely improvised. The form of the piece is AABC. The piece is based on the standard Lover Come Back to Me, written by Sigmund Romberg in 1928.

The original melodic contour comes from the chord progression I- III7-Vim-II7-V7. In

Lima Beans, I use melodic fragmentation; a division of a musical idea into segments.

This is seen in the fragmentation of the original chord structure. For example, Ab- C7-

Fm- Bb7- Eb7 becomes Ab- Gm7b5- C7b9- Fm- Bb7- Em- A7.

The tempo is also altered from its original allegro feel. The bebop tempi tend to be quicker and therefore I choose to play this song at approximately 240-280 beats per minute. This is similar to Bud Powell's Bean and the Boys, a piece also based on Lover

Come Back to Me.

The A section melodies are improvisations of the harmonic progressions, played by the piano. The guitar improvises the B section melody. In the last 8 bars of the piece, the introduction is heard again, bringing a sense of closure. Then the soloists begin their improvisations.

The bass notes in the introduction is descend in a step-wise motion, suggesting harmonic movement, although the II and V chords are only alternating along with the IV and I chord. 71

J= 168 Dementia 5 :BucTs Bowells F BMimMaj7 7, N=fF 11 F M [ j r 1 ir' 1 -m -4 • 4^i- ' ii ^ -f^ W1 - * 1 J' w 7P7 en

F7 FMaj9 F7 fall) A13 b9 D7 F=t= 1^ -,J T-1 h*. K- • J> f=H= *; fv-r-d 7j p—W— 7JJJ c in »lJ I*« • •4 ^#1 J ^TTlT-f^ * *r f 1-• 1? *r if *r b- 1 7 4=4 " J MM "P P f ^ L" ~m h#J

12 Gin7 C7 Cm11 Gbm/F7 BbMaj7 Bm E7 EbMaj9

G7(alt> C7(alt'

Wi

23 F F BMimMaj7 liV' , _ -r:K kJ ni ^^sfy-n 7j *T* -4H» » r 7» f *f m + tr V • m < f 7 ; % ff ^M ~~ Lf -7 1f -7 «_n ' F f LT=j y v ? r r r ' m

28 F FMaj9 F7 'alt' A13t>9 D7 * n \*r I ^ iy | j— -L .x n i pt=^% J h 1 h 1 j J , i-f #=^=S r^ic ^ r J Wsi

\ -L0l F^- I-' !> V >\) \ ±U=i j r $ r n ^~J- L^Tw 72

Gkn7/F7 BbMaj7 Pi 61

E7 EkMaj9

TO 4J G7 C7 F7

bJfcjJ •'q* - ^ T r •* M* *):,!» « =h r1 • #r Lj —i. •*o J

48 Ebm7 At7 DbMaj7 C#m7 F#7 fc

ipilf r ^ ZM ^ OTT-^ i5=: ItW—Uo

54 BMaj7 Cm7 F Dm7 G7 " £1/ i-'U i-'iiS p WW ttr t^T- ^11 I1=8= 59 Cm7 FD b9 F7sus F#7 BMaj F7 (alt) A'H? D7

—'tn 5fe -50- Jr ry 65 Gm7 C7(alt» Cm7 Gbm7/F7 BbMaj7

— ..J. IJ«- -o-

¥ xr 73

71 Bm E7 EfcMaj® At7 Dm G7

1 - H i=F 1 1 1 1 •- • I "1 1 rn a j •/ J- »%JP3 J,J 'h

c—V- Jh-^4 / 11 *J V* 2= TT <0 1 76 C7 F7 F7(A1 t» BbdimMaj7 ijM 1 '= i, N j - n i -w zfz#Jzd J 3 5 ?I' -< -

SO F7 FMaj9 Fine

l-w-y I ^ n h, 1 I hi K> - »ft* 1>, »' * 4-p; *-^4 ^ * 5* ^ IW'o I» * t=^f: \*=d £^P-£f- r~* ~ 74

Analysis of Dementia 5: Bud's Bowells

The piece Dementia 5: Bud's Bowells is in the key of Bb, in 4/4 time, with a metronomic marking of 168 beats per minute, the quarter note receiving one beat. The 8- bar introduction is followed by a 14-bar A section, then an 8-bar interlude, concluded by a 16 bar bridge. The pick-up to the melody at measure 9 uses triads derived from the whole tone scale. The harmony from measures 9-23 follows a cycle of fifths pattern. In m. 11 the E7 is a tritone equivalent.

The interlude at mm.24-31 is a repetition of the introduction. The break at measures 46-47 acts as an introduction to the B section, which features the chord progression II-V-I in the key of Db. A modulation back to Bb occurs in measures 56-57.

In measures 58-59 a like-function substitution occurs; instead of the I chord (Bb) a D minor chord appears. This is followed by the following chord progression: G7-Cm-F7-

Fsus-F#7-BM7. This chord progression initiates the whole tone progression that is also found at measure 9 75

J= 176 Hamburg H<;lper FM7 FM7 E7 il.*c f m «nrn , rl,n *CTT1 x'r ~f*rn tti qi,j J J cloj g J s *>:, 4 z—>— ft' 1 jj b4 r" $ . y * B& d a w f id'

5 FM7 FM7 AmV DV *~r n «| "flnTC risa # j ^ _ —%y—Usf-~j\>0 f \ r ^N 6 *fr p* ^-p-" TF ^ *—

9 G7*11 G7#11 Gm7 C7#11 F/A o -f m m. 0L ir^'nr1'^ |cle!r^ t - o Ij--7 *— 76

Analysis of Hamburg Helper

The composition Hamburg Helper is based on the 1920s composition Whispering, composed by John Shoenberg and Richard Coburn. Hamburg Helper is in the key of F major. The piece is in ABAC form, in 4/4 time, and the metronomic marking is 180 beats per minute, with the quarter note receiving one beat. The melody consists mainly of broken chords. For example, the melody in the first bar outlines an FM7 chord. This is followed by a descending Im7 chord in the second bar. On beat three of the same bar, the melody briefly outlines a C augmented chord descending against the IM7. The Am7b5 in measure 7 is treated like a tonic chord because the melody is outlining a FM7 chord. In measure 8, the melody outlines the chord built on the 7th degree of the bV7/V7chord

(tritone substitution), which is the Gb7. In measure 16, while the bass clef chord is C7, the melody plays Gb mixolydian scale, which is the substition of the C7 chord.

The E7 in measures 3 and 4 acts as the suspension in a Gbsusbl3 chord, another tritone substitution. This chord resolves back to the tonic chord since it is dominant functioning. The Am7b5 chord acts as a F7 ascending to the F#dim, which is written as

D7b9. 77

j =108 Subperverse BmMaf/Fm7 Bb7#11!.9 AmMaf/Ebm7 Ab7#"^ GmMaf/Dbm7 Gb7*11^ Cm7 F7#"b9

m bo m bW bo b-e- brr 9 EMaf A»«" Ebm" Ab7#9 Db7»n F#u G13 Abu A13

*3 w :l/w tj b-o- b"cr /7 Fm" Bb^iibs am11 Ab7#»b9 Dbm11 GbHb9 Cm7 F7*11^

-is ifei: i tjJ: I b^p ^

b-o- bxr 25 EMaf A13"11 Ebm" Ab7#9 Gb'V BMaj13 Emaj13 CMaj13 Fmaj13 HP & n ii»» be b-o- Tj 9 9 13 3 33 F#m B" F#m B13 fW B BW EMaj' #

• { I J r-i l>> J I j i j J sn\ ^4= £= Mi »J h a ^ n#'J W-6P't|- fe—=— »-

: s> Jh —#0 —8 ? —*" V> i d 3 40 Edim E G^rn9 C#13 G^m9 C#' gW> C#13#lll,9 l|J It-P ^5 ft IF P 78

47 AmMaJVEbm7 At7*11!.* Dt>m"b»

F7#'V> EMaj7

64 At7*1'!.' CtW'W F*'V BMaj13 EMaj" CMaj13 FMaj13

6 J .£ 9 X ^ ' — XT f3" ^ "C U=1g : ^—

' * —

69 DMaj13 GMaj13 EMaj13 AMaj13 AbMaj13 Fine fdH rj w 1 J- *i' 4 -4 -e- ^ (('

I fr «

—^—6 79

Analysis of Subperverse

The piece Subperverse is in the key of B major, in 4/4 time, with a metronomic marking of 108 beats per minute, the quarter note receiving one beat. The form is AABA.

The melody notes are a combination of alternating conjunct and disjunct intervals. The rhythms are repetitive throughout and therefore can be viewed as isorhythmic. The melodic contour is also iterative in the sense that there are small ideas repeating throughout the compostion, mainly the continued use of a descending major 2nd interval followed by an ascending minor second interval. The top note of each chord forms the melody throughout. A cycle of 5ths is used at the beginning of the song starting on an altered version of Fm7b5, written as BmMaj7/Fm7. This sequence descends in whole tones until it resolves to the IV chord, Emaj7, at measure 9. Then the harmony progresses quickly from II-V, then leads to a secondary dominant (Db7#ll), which never quite resolves to its tonic chord, creating a sense of ambiguity as the harmony hints at a half- cadential sequence starting on F#7 and modulates up chromatically in dominant harmonies only to become an introduction to the second A section. This A section starts at the same division of the key center, BmMaj7/Fm7, which is really an alteration of

Fm7b5. 80

1=12 Oscar the grouch

7 7 7 7 7 Ai» I> DWimMajj Eton v AfrWO DfcMajj L _ Gbm Cb

•^ i Ui l \i \

Bb7 Em A7 P Ebm Gbm Fm F/ABbm Bbm Eb7

W b

1 aa j J—J- lA '!^ j f T^^ a J v.. *»7I|» Tg T^q-H ' 1 1 HrrHW3 5^ 6 *- * 4 : J i>. b 5 * * b,r f r r s — —y v y -— * ft 9-5 ^ b - r if r r I r* *fp 1 fHiK J—1 ~ H- k i ccrtfiB IP[W 1™! 3 m » 4s *>:,1* \, jMl $f y t> iA * r *p ^3P—¥ 1 » r r [ rn 14 DbMaj7 _ , Dbdim7 iAb 7 D7sus4

19 DbMaj7 Ab7 Db7#" GbMaf^tW) Gbaug GbMaf^W B7sus4

m py = y f f 81

Ab7 82

Analysis of Oscar the Grouch

The composition Oscar the Grouch is in the key of Db major, in 4/4 time with a metronomic speed of 72 beats per minute, the quarter note receiving one beat. The form of the piece is AABA. This composition features chords that are seemingly complex but, when simplified, are really just altered forms of the I, Ilm or V chord. For example, in measure, the chord on the fourth beat is a Gb7. This can be substituted for Ab /Gb, which is really Ab7, or the V7 chord, with the seventh in the bass. On the third beat of measure

3, the Gbm chord is just a version of the V7 chord containing a b9 and a sus4. This "V7" chord resolves to the tonic, here written as Fm, which can be viewed as a like-function substitution of the tonic chord.

The B section harmony, beginning at measure 17, starts on the IV chord and returns to the tonic at measure 19. The melody is disrupted by the sudden appearance of stacked augmented chords a full tone apart, resulting in bitonality.

The final A section is transposed up an octave. 83

J = 132 Prosodaic Cues Em9*!*3 A7 Dm9*!-5) G7 Cm9^ F7 A/Bb Amlts D7Q>9'

9 7 7 7 9 9 7( 9 6 Aaug/Gm Fm EnW) A Dm Db F*Maf B Em ^ A7(k9) Dm ^ G b > 1

1 $l^-lL •H ki :• £ u* ^in 5—r-^ M 5^ P . it J «Hj L [>- ; m *9 ; * ~9 II Cm^ F7(b9> A/Bb Am^bS D7(b9) Gm" C^alt' A/C* t p j i t 15 Db/Dm Gb/Gm Cb/Cm F7<#5> BbMaf<#») F#m9 B7 BbMafQ.9' BbMaf " k :3l>' =F=jF

Em9

k bp; i=4| i4 V~" wi-LJ- ?- J HI *• ^ e- *1~ ' •—* m *f If tfH r*—w 1 "¥ 7 ... ¥ "W i j}3;it tp?: 'f TH —n p ^ * J~ i_—3 2J Ebm^bS) Ab7(b9» DbMaf«b9> EbnWi Ab7 DbMaf'b9) Bbm AMaf D9'®11' BbMafQ*7) pine

a p~ai 9 ^ " T TA F=# 3 *A''-/ |y r g -| Ucjrr 1H=fN=H =i 'jjr r » 84

Analysis of Prosodaic Cues

The composition Prosodaic Cues is in the key of Bb, in 4/4 time, with a tempo of

13 beats per minute, with the quarter note receiving one beat. The song starts on the tritone chord and then moves in a cycle of fifths, only to resolve on a turbulent A major chord over the tonic Bb chord, which can be viewed as a BbdimM7 chord. The harmony moves to the relative minor, starting in m.5 with an Am9B5 chord (the supertonic of G minor), then D7b9 (the dominant of G minor). In measure 6, the Fm6 chord on the fourth beat can be viewed as an alteration of the following Em9b5 chord. Measure 15 features polychords.

The B section begins in measure 17. The B7 chord is a tritone substitution of the dominant chord. The following measures lead to a brief modulation to D major in m.20.

The bass descends in octaves to the Abm9(b5) chord, which initiates a cycle of fifths descending to DbM7(b9) in measure 24. The next two measure move through Db harmonies, until we reach a tritone substitution of Eb, notated here as AM7 in measure

27, which acts as a secondary dominant to the following D9#l 1. This D9#l 1 resolves to the final BbM7(b7), because the tonic note of the D9#ll chord becomes the third of the

BbM7(b7) chord, and fifth of the D9#l 1 chord becomes the seventh of the BbM7(b7) chord. Also, the #11 of the D9#l 1 chord is the b7 of the BbM7(b7) chord. 85

J= 144 Neuroplasticity (Excerpt)

1 -6 J 1 «" reci pjccii -g — l 6 sks&x&g&l efcftjjrdJrcLa'l di

i - 11 -g- 6 L- — 6 e

l r-~—6 , r——5|6 ~—^6- 1 r—- gji rT3 r , rf3 —*>J~ * *— US->' ULf

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*TI= ffl= =ffli IHH E J L TO SM- S^ .— 4-«M r— fj* -W 1r J- •# **"••• 0:jtA - n4—4——Ji n&. r ^111r •h i i.r L—;; 0 & i- Ipj t W"

87

Analysis of Neuroplasticity (excerpt)

The composition Neuroplasticity is in the key of C# minor, in 4/4 time, with a tempo of 144. It was inspired by Chopin's Fantasie Impromptu. The melodic intervals are iterative; each melodic figure jumps up by an octave, descends by a disjunct interval, and then rises by a more conjuct interval. The piece is polymetric and features the isorhythm of four sixteenth notes over eighth note triplets. The melody note occurs on the second sixteenth note of every beat. In the ninth and tenth measures a Neapolitan 6th chord is used. 88

j =138 My Cardinal Infarction

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mp

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Analysis of My Cardinal Infarction

The composition My Cardinal Infarction is in the key of Ab major, in 4/4 time, with a tempo of 138 beats per minute. The form of the piece is AABCDA. This iterative piece features rhythmic repetition of eighth note pairs, as well as repeated use of the interval• of a 3rH in the melody. Measures 10-12 features bitonality, as evidenced by the

Cb major melody against the FM7 chords. The octatonic scales is used in 3rds in measures 22-28. The left hand plays a I-V-I-V ragtime-like accompaniment throughout the piece. 91

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