Lecture #1 Music & the Brain

Sound & soul: how does music work?

Ian Douglas April 10 – May 15 Idea: in a world of sound, there are specific patterns of tone, timbre, & rhythm created with purpose to move and inspire us. From the humble elements of tone, rhythm, & timbre specific patterns of sound are created with the earth- shaking power to move us deeply, express things that language cannot, and create deep human connection… a miracle!

How does this happen?

“a walk along the forest path…” Course outline 6) 5) 4) 3) 2) 1) The creativeprocess improvisation & sound Music & production The secretsrhythm of The voice The elementsmusic of the Music brain& Jaco Pastorius Weather Report Olafur Arnalds Nana Vasconcelos Nusrat Ali Fateh Khan Jane Antonia Cornish Pat Metheny Trichy Sankarin Peter Gabriel Lisa Gerrard Alex Cuba Emerson, Lake & Palmer Khatia Bianitchivilli Manu Katche Imogen Heap Mystere des Voix Bulgares Sigur Ros Stephane Grappeli Musica Intima Cocteau twins Claude Debussy The Dirty Loops Eric Whitacre Gustav Holst Pierre Moerlen’s gong Fairground Attraction Igor Stravinsky Arvo Part VOCES8 The Innocence Mission Gabriela Montero A Winged Victory For the Sullen Mouth Music Emiliana Torrini Jane Antonia Cornish Steve Tibbetts A.C.Jobim Iarla O’Lionaird Stephane Grappelli Lecture #1 Music & the brain

i. HEARING AND SOUND ii. MUSIC PERCEPTION iii. HUMAN RESPONSE

Let’s experience a piece of music…. hearing music: sound vibrations waves frequency tone patterns structure meaning emotion spirit physics of sound: mechanical air molecules mechanical liquid mechanical chemical electrical electro-chemical

Q: sound in vacuum?

EXPT: hit a tone on singing bowl to ring… i. Frequency = pitch ii. Amplitude = loudness Physics of sound: iii. Complexity = timbre Sound waves = G3

= G4

= G1 How do we hear music?

“of all the senses, hearing most EXPERIMENT… resembles a contraption some ingenious plumber has put together from spare parts.” (D.Ackerman) The human ear

Pinna: asymmetric, reflected waves sound localization binaural cues for time of arrival and intensity ear canal resonates & amplify high frequency Yawn – out of tune! The travelling wave theory Cochlea: 3.5 cm in length. Travelling wave theory (1928) by George von Bekesy won Nobel Prize in 1961; worked as research scientist in Hungary Post Office – improve telecommunications, looked at physiology of the human ear and animals (mice, elephants). Apparently, he used the drill press in the office to drill through cochlea in cadavers; silver ‘flakes’ & strobe photography to observe vibrations.

Georg von Bekesy (1899 – 1972) Let’s look deeper inside the human ear… let’s go!

Cochlea: ‘transducer’, converts energy from one form (sound wave) into electro- chemical energy (neural impulse); The human ear: cochlea

the structure of the unrolled cochlea, 3.5 cm (Plack, 2005) “On the surface of the basilar membrane, within the median The human ear: canal, the entire neural the organ of Corti apparatus for sound detection is laid out in the organ of Corti” heschl’s gyrus - within the lateral fissure and comprising parts of Heschl's gyrus and the superior temporal gyrus, including planum polare and planum temporale; K+ Named after Austrian anatomist Na+ Richard L. Heschl (1824–1881). Heschl's gyrus (plural Heschl's gyri) K+ (neuroanatomy) processing speech & K+ “inner voice”

Electron micrograph of stereocilia on organ of corti

n=20,000 stereocilia in rows of three Electron micrograph of stereocilia on organ of corti

Video of ear structures n=20,000 stereocilia https://youtu.be/ in rows of three eQEaiZ2j9oc What is music? particular ‘dance’ of air molecules meaning tones constructed in patterns that inspire the listener music is purposeful, created & expressed response

music is “organized sound” (A.Copland)

EXAMPLE: Richard Skelton (UK): “Rapture” from CD ‘Landings’ EXAMPLE: Kevin Gilbert (USA) “Parade”: white noise slowly shaping into musical tones Music of the spheres: Pythagoras

Is music mathematical? Pythagoras discovered in 5th century B.C. that notes can be precisely measured along a vibrating string, intervals expressed as mathematical ratios OCTAVE equivalence Intervals

Ackerman: “the development of our brains & nervous system has led us to preferences in intervals – much of what we hear strikes us as dissonance or noise, but in a narrow range we find sweet, satisfying, mellifluous” TWO notes at once – hear individual, but new “thing” EXPT Major scale C/D#, C/D, C/D#, etc.

Which ones are pleasant, dissonant? Music of the spheres: Pythagoras Sound ha ha, I know a wave = G3 little secret! forms

= G4

Hermann von Helmholtz Sensations of tone, 1863 = G4

= G1 The harmonic series Hermann Helmholtz: fundamental + overtones fundamental + harmonic “overtone” series we ‘hear’ it as one note, the fundamental our brain ‘hears’ fundamental even if it’s missing: eg. Pavorotti on telephone! therefore, each note is actually a chord! Sound waves the ear synthesizes ear the frequencies the various it as single a tone hears Timbre: the “colour” of the sound

Fundamental + harmonic overtones complex wave patterns giving the timbre or tone colour of sound, texture

eg. David Sylvian (UK): “Preparations for a Journey” from ‘Alchemy: an index of possibilities’ EP (1984) Timbre: the “colour” of the sound

Fundamental + harmonic overtones complex wave patterns giving the timbre or tone colour of sound, musical tone, texture

vs.

real piano has complex harmonics, wood, metal, sympathetic vibrations from other strings… beautiful! Musical objects: vibration + resonance eg. music box, guitar, drum skin, & clave

Mesopotamia instruments 5,500 years old (pipes, triangles, stringed, drums, flutes) Unravel a French horn = 10 feet long, coiled for convenience; flared end changes harmonics

string: plucked or air column: percussion: strike bowed, friction of vibrates due to object (membrane, horse hair “catches” reed, double-reed, wood, metal, beans) and releases brass, and voice “A lot of scraping, blowing, & pounding…”

Greater the energy of an instrument’s vibration, harder it batters the air ear drums, but less than 1% of playing energy emerges as sound. violin,What flute, instrument clarinet – 1/20 coversth watt the th tubagreatest – 1/5 watt, frequency range? trumpet – 1/3 watt piano – 1/2 watt trombonePipe organ – 6 watts [16 Hz – 4500 Hz] cymbalsPiano – 10 w [27 Hz – 4200 Hz] bass drumHarp – 25 [30 w Hz – 3300 Hz] orchestraCello belts [65 out Hz 67 – watts1000 at Hz] full blast! 16 Hz (pipe organ rumble) to 4500 Hz (piccolo); Piano 27 – 4200 Hz

Frequency range for various musical instruments Frequencies: harp therapy Ian Hepburn, Van Kleek Hill What musical instrument are you?

Ian’s H.B.T. #17: the musical instrument is a reflection of the person who plays it!

Diane Ackerman QUOTE:” A Natural History of the Senses” Amplitude: How sensitive are our ears? ladybug on a leaf rocket launch!

dB = decibel, ratio of [sound:faintest] on a log10 scale; sensitive ∆1 dB: whisper from 3 ft. away (10-15 dB); home (40 dB); talking (65–75 dB); opera singer (70–90 dB); Wagner’s Ring Cycle (110 dB); Health & safety: <85-90 dB; Hearing loss

acoustic reflex – muscles attached to ossicles protect us from loud sounds (percussion); opera singers scotoma or ‘deaf spot’ at 4000 kHz

music loudness – range of 30 – 110 dB (subjectively 8:1); Loudest sound in history: Krakatau in 1883 – was heard 2,800 miles away hearing loss: Hearing range shrinks during life,[14] usually beginning at around age of eight with the upper frequency limit being reduced. Women typically experience a lesser degree of hearing loss than men, with a later onset. Men have approximately 5 to 10 dB greater loss in the upper frequencies by age 40! Frequency: range of human hearing 20 Hz – 20,000 Hz

<20 Hz 100 - 200 Hz 500 - 4000 Hz 50,000 Hz piccolo bats the the “beam” talking talking

Humans are most sensitive to frequencies between 2,000 and 5,000 Hz. Hearing falls off sharply at 15,000 Hz – last auditory channel of cochlea Frequency: humans vs. animals

Human: 20 Hz – 20 kHz Elephants: 17 Hz – 10.5 kHz Ferret: 16 Hz – 44 kHz Goldfish: 20 Hz – 3 kHz Cow: 23 Hz – 35 kHz Dog: 64 Hz – 44 kHz Cat: 55 Hz – 77 kHz Brown bat: 10 kHz – 115 kHz Whale: 1 kHz – 123 kHz Porpoise: 75 Hz – 150 kHz “noise” vs. tone entropy: universe tends toward random and dissociated - the “junk” drawer (2nd law)

“noise” = sounds that are random, uninteresting, irritating tones = sounds that are organized into specific frequencies order & patterns: just as we are assemblies of chemicals organized into specific shape & form, music is sound assembled into patterns with meaning; purposely created, takes energy to create & maintain form; when sounds are arranged in orderly pattern of overtones, result is a musical “tone” Orchestra in your ear what’s happening in the “garden” of stimulation?

Pet your ears, kindly… The musical brain Three cognitive abilities characterize the musical brain (Levitin): i. Perspective – think about our thoughts, realize that others may have different thoughts and beliefs; ii. Representation – symbolic meaning of something that’s not right in front of us (eg. Picasso on train…); iii. Rearrangement – ability to combine, recombine, impose hierarchy on elements in the world; human brain understands relations between things: the cornerstone of music cognition! The role of memory in “processing” music

Working memory: moving “window” of perception: “brain sustains memories of music that has just passed by in relation to what it hears now (eg. “La Mer” by Debussy)

Procedural memory: a concert pianist memorizes >10,000 notes in exact sequence for concerto*, accents, dynamics, etc. HOW? patterns, blocking, muscle memory, emotion

Structure: anticipates what is coming next, based on patterns, experience, culture; & [Su]220 surprise! music tells a “story” we are story ‘creatures’, music as language. Toscanini & bassoon player with broken F# key!

*# notes in Rachmaninoff #3 in 3 movements: 10,664 + 4,662 + 13,709 = 29,035 Total How does our brain attend to music?

Sound filtering: brain focuses attention on selective sounds (eg. voice in song)

Something “new”:loudness, unexpected pitch change, unexpected timbre change, or a really unexpected word.

EXPT: Lhasa de Sela “Por eso me quedo” from La Llorona (1997) Why do musicians move when they play?

to “feel” or interpret the music to facilitate the playing, physically to control the sound of the instrument to convey emotion with body language for “flow” to conduct their own playing

VIDEO: Khatia Buniatishvilli: piano “Petrushka” https://youtu.be/pnZ_m9A96SY The sound of silence

silence “bookends” a piece of music ‘precious’ moment: musical brain integrates what was heard, intuitive, emotional wave …the Shivasina of music listening.

“Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter” (Keats) VOCES8 at Abbey Road Studio: https://youtu.be/t8xbY9Iyxpo Music & emotion: How do we respond to music?

sorrow tenderness electricity energy serenity melancholy

bliss wonder tension shivers euphoria sensual majestic beauty Frisson: musical response of “chills”

“a sudden, passing sensation” shivers down neck, spine, when listening to a particularly moving piece of music; roughly half of listeners report frisson: musicians, ‘openness to experience’ (Huron, 2006) proposes frisson is a fight response to surprising stimuli, but music is non-threatening pleasure physiology of emotional arousal, limbic system reward processes (STUDY) music characteristics: unexpected musical events, sustained high pitches, unexpected harmonies, sudden change in loudness, slow… “Unscientific” Toccata & fugue in Dmin J.S.Bach Milan Survey: The four seasons Vivaldi Rosi Le Cantique de Jean Racine G.Faure Heather Spiegel im spiegel Arvo Part Mike, Glenda.. what song or piece Black Velvet Mountain Soft Machine Brian of music gives you The Flower of Port William Chris Norman Peter frisson? The Ashokan Farewell Ungar & Mason Carol Mahler’s 8th Symphony Gustav Mahler David Seal’s Lullabye Eric Whitacre John my “unscientific” March of the Slaves (Aida) Verdi Marny conclusion: Water into wine Bruce Cockburn Jeff Amarilli Cuccini / C.Bartoli Lisa everyone is Summing up the muse Dead Can Dance Rick different! The thrill is gone BB. King Terry Lucy Frisson: what musical characteristics give me “chills”? Experiments with myself (n=1)

• choral music • close harmony (dissonant) • dramatic swell • sustained note/vocal • sufficient loudness or energy • specific recording • lush sound quality • fresh chord or harmony • shimmering energy or “white” noise • shifting / complex harmony • unexplained beauty Songs that give me frisson…

1) Eric Whitacre, Stephen Layton & Polyphony (USA) “Sleep” 2) Sigur Ros (Iceland) “Takk” 3) Musica Intima (Canada) “Loch Lomond” 4) Jeremy Dutcher (Canada) Indigenous music “Mehcinut” 5) VOCES8 (UK) at Abbey Road “Shenandoah” Eric Whitacre

“Sleep” by Eric Whitacre: Polyphony choir UK, directed by Stephen Layton: from “Cloudburst and other works” frisson – personal reflection

IMP Q: Why does it make me cry or feel shivers?

sense of order and elegance in the universe, something greater, voices together in harmony, human interdependence, clockwork, human tone, shifting harmony, mystery, human aspiration, physical presence, emoting, for a brief moment… everything is alright in the world. Thank you

Thank you!