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 SEPTEMBER 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-88632-8 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-88632-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada iv 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.