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JONAHS_STRAVINSKY

                                             January 15, 2012

                                                        JONAHS_COOKIE
In Lehrer's chapter on music (largely about
Stravinsky), Lehrer seems to me to be at
his worst (but it could just be that I know
more about it and am more critical).

  Lehrer has bought into the idea that
  music is primarily emotional, but it      "When the musical pattern we know
  isn't hard to find at least some          is violated, these cells begin
  examples of music whose appeal is         the neural process that ends with
  primarily intellectual.  And it's not     the release of dopamine, the same
  at all clear that other artwork           neurotransmitter that reorganizes
  (novels?  paintings?) are typically       the auditory cortex.  (Dopamine
  any less emotional in their appeal.       is also the chemical source of
                                            our most intense emotion, which
  Even worse is Lehrer's assertion          helps to explain the strange
  that our perception of notes is           emotional power or music,
  biologically determined.  Different       especially when it confronts us
  cultures subdivide the scale into         with newness and dissonance.)"
  different numbers of notes... the                           --p.141
  western ear has trouble listening
  to, say, arabic singing because
  they intentionally hit quarter tones     That's pretty basic
  that are in-between the notes of         stuff really, and if
  our "octave".                            Lehrer was trying to
                                           say something else he
                                           should've made it
                                           clearer:

                                           "While human nature largely
                                           determines how we hear the
                                           _notes_, it is nurture that
                                           lets us hear the _music_."
                                                         -- p.141


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