Re: [microsound] memory and melody

[dbuchwald <dagmar.buchwald@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sorry to comment on myself; but I think I got something wrong there.  It might have been the other way round: women decode language bi-hemispherically, i. e. also in that area of the brain which is responsible for music while men tend to decode it predominantly in the other hemisphere.   And they (women) are very receptive to voice (is that why the male blackbird sings?)  Would that explain why even complex compositions are broken down to the voice-and-melody plane?

The more I attempt to clarify it the more blurred it seems to get.  Sorry.

Dagmar

dbuchwald wrote:

> The next thing that struck me was that there is obviously a gender difference in decoding music and voice.  As far as I know women (in modern Western cultures) tend to process sound events predominantly in that area of the brain which is responsible for decoding language, whereas men (in modern Western cultures) partly process them in brain areas more geared towards abstract patterns.  Whether this is due to the overwhelming dominance of mothers teaching songs to their children and teaching them the language (thesis: 'nature' disposed females rather towards the language processing end because that is where their main occupation lies -- sorry, not a very feminist viewpoint but close to the
> history of human cultures) I cannot say: at least it cannot explain why boys taught by the same mother still develop (or bring with them) a different way of processing sounds than their sisters.  I always wondered whether this was the reason why there are so few female composers, much less than painters or writers.  Although musical training ought to tip the balance.  Since there are many female musicians (not composers) they ought to have the ability to hear more than melody when playing or listending to music. :)  And this fixation on melody is certainly not restricted to females (see the male blackbird).
>
> vadim sprikut wrote:
>
> > hi all.
> >
> > i was thinking about music and memory. more specifically, why its easier for most of us to remember melody rather than other elements like timbre, tone, rhythm (although this one is debatable), etc.
> >
> > the first thing that comes to mind of course is how we encode information. for instance, the average number of things (numbers, words, etc) one can memorize in one string is about seven. anything more than that, and we're in trouble. my musical language is pretty weak, but i suspect its something to do with the arrangement of a melodic part. thats why most of the 'memorable' music has been pop or classically oriented.
> >
> > but it seems like there should be more to it than that though. not just how the melody is arranged but the characteristics of the melody as well. that brings another question to mind: are we predisposed to process melody over those other elements? kind of like being born with the capacity for language that is eventually nurtured into complex speech through interactions with parents (and exposure to language in general). or is this a totally learned mechanism? for instance, if you were able to raise a child with no exposure to melody but instead played it abstract compositions (such as some of the music we discuss here), would it be able to remember elements of abstraction better than melody?
> >
> > take a piece of music like vladislav delay's "anima" for instance. beautiful work, but i have a hard time retaining it's specific structures in my head. i can remember certain sounds, tones, etc but i wouldnt be able to reproduce it for anyone unless i actually played it. however, take his luomo project, and its a different story. i can hum certain parts because ive managed to retain certain melodic elements.
> >
> > maybe someone into psychoacoustics can shed some light on this.
> >
> > v'
> >
> > ---------------------------------
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Yahoo! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your site
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> website: http://www.microsound.org

------------------------------