Re: [microsound] memory and melody

[vadim sprikut <blohhskj@xxxxxxxxx>]

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Only if everything remotely reminding of melody is removed this fixation opens and I begin to hear the layers, the occurrences of single tones, the events (that's why microsound is almost therapy to me). 

>>funny you say that. ive made a conscious attempt to eschew melody in whatever it is im trying to compose. i think for a lot of people, the melodic quality means that a song is good, or atleast is representative of what music should be. my mother (speaking of mothers) is a classically trained opera singer. for her, if a song doesnt have melody, its not a "real" song, or is just no good.

>>i cant help think of those times when we get a song "stuck" in our head. rather, the main melodic part or the hook. we can hear it playing over and over again. abstraction seems to take more effort. that is, i dont ever get an abstract microsound composition "stuck" in my head (unless, of course, it has melody :)

In terms of memorizing cadences, repetition and rhyme are equally important: when you learn a poem by heart those are the features which help you to memorize it. How closely they are connected to the melody-faculty of our brain, I don't know. Very close I guess.

>>structure is important to be sure. i keep using this spoken language analogy and maybe it applies here as well. cadences, repetition and rhyme are sort of like syntax and grammar. it helps us organize and make meaning of what we're hearing.

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. 

>>thats interesting. so this may hint at certain built in biological predispositions towards this stuff. ive read research that has shown infants respond much better to female voices because of the pitch they can produce. men usually have 'lower, deeper' voices and apparently this is not as pleasing to infants. think about baby talk parents do with their infants. its almost always in the higher register of hearing, even men alter their voices to get into this range.

>>i know theres been research in other areas of cognition that has illustrated differences between males and females, perhaps music is one of them.

But what about other cultures? 

>>wow, yeah. hard to ignore this factor. my knowledge here (non-western composition) is really paltry, so i dont really know. the recordings ive heard from around the world have been starkly different. the question for me would be, how universal is one's tendency to remember melody? is it a western phenomenon (that is, is it learned)? do asian children for example, recall other elements easier than they recall melody?

>>maybe we can look at music as being analogous to language again. like verbal elements of language, we begin to speak by having interactions with other speakers. maybe with music too? we hear pop songs early on, and melody becomes an element of this musical language. we can begin to hum melodies or sing it back to people. 

v'

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