[LAU] re Subconscious Affecting Music

[david]

Rustom Mody wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 4, 2010 at 1:59 PM, david <gnome at hawaii.rr.com 
> <mailto:gnome at hawaii.rr.com>> wrote:
> 
> 
>     The real interesting measure of perception/influence of music on
>     thought might require use of functional MRI scanning, which can show
>     the actual electrical activity in the brain.
> 
> Yes I forgot to mention brain-wave patterns. Ultimately any such 
> 'objective-measure' may miss some more subtle influence.  Its just that 
> a crude idea may be better than no idea.

Functional MRI is much more than "brain-wave patterns". Functional MRI 
shows the actual nerve firings in the brain, flowing from cell to cell 
to cell. It provides a very detailed record of brain activity.

The difficulty at this stage of functional MRI development is mapping 
what it shows to thoughts, to what it means.

>         Coming back to Bach: If he was not interested in tunings he
>         would not have written the Well Tempered clavier.
> 
>         If he was interested in promoting equal temperament he would
>         have called it the Equal tempered Clavier
> 
>     There were plenty of tunings in Bach's day. If music over the
>     centuries had NOT settled on a standard tuning that essentially
>     displaced the others, would modern music have been experimenting
>     with alternative tunings?
> 
> I dont understand...
> 
> As far as I can see(hear?) today's technology makes possible musical 
> experiments (including but not limited to tuning) that could not have 
> been dreamt of 20 years ago -- leave aside Bach

Yes, music technology lets us do things that previous musical eras 
couldn't even dream about.

What I meant was: if western music had never settled on a standard 
tuning, and composers routinely worked with a wide variety of differing 
tunings, would there have been as much urge to invent new tunings? I 
think part of the urge to devise new tunings arose because using a 
tuning other than standard tuning was DIFFERENT.

-- 
David
gnome at hawaii.rr.com
authenticity, honesty, community