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Music is cognitive Music is a kind of art. It has a great influence on our mood. Music reflecting its great significance in sound art images, one of the forms of public ideology. Music has great influence on our mood and soul. It can inspire us for doing different things but only when it is itself inspired. The basic of the music is tune and it is greatly connected with human psyche and soul.
Music can make us happy or sad, thoughtful or aggressive, mope or enthusiastic. The way of expression of music is unlimited. It opens our inner world and shows the beauty of universe. Music contains great power but we pay no attention on this fact taking this for granted. It rules us all and we obey.
Having by powerful force direct emotional effect, music during of all history mankind plays a huge social, cultural and cognitive role. This is my own humble point of view, which Ill try to prove thought this paper. The topic of Mind and Music is not new for psychology. Stuart Feder can be named a pioneer in this field. In the late 1970 s and early 1980 s he looked for a point of entry into a field relating the biographies of composers to their creative life in music. In his work he tried to relate the artists mental life directly with the music itself. (The Mind and Music Project).
Music was analyzed not only from the aesthetic point of view but something closely related to the life, in particular to the mental processes of the composer. As result he edited Psychoanalytic Explorations in Music and turned attention of many psychologists to this topic. Before we continued further explorations in this sphere lets define the term musician. I think that right understanding of this word is essential for the understanding the whole topic. The definition of musician is a broad one.
It is not only the person who performs the music but any individual who deals with the symbolic function of musicians hermeneutics, semantics, syntax and (put colloquially, just plain "meaning") (The Mind and Music Project). According to Stuart Feder through this new perceptions of old word we can easily link composers who invent musical forms and ideas; performers who interpret and realize them, scholars who analyze them from myriad points of view; and critics and other writers who comment on them. Perhaps too, the listeners who we all are should be included in this particular conceptual loop since audition, whether physical or mental, is musics final common pathway within the mind of the auditor. As Ive already wrote music influence greatly on peoples mind. Does it influence in the same way on listener and musicians minds? Lets turn to facts.
According to Research announced to the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting in Philadelphia, US, has shown how musicians have more "grey matter" - or brain cells, in certain key regions. Its not that their profession causes such differences, rather then the other way around, but still there is a strong possibility that musicians have reshaped their minds over the years. (American Academy of Neurology, US). Different researches were made in this field but all of them only proved this theory. According to the BBC News Professor Gottfried Schlaug, a German expert, looked at 15 professional male musicians, and 15 non-musicians. He used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to chart the various regions of their brains. Results stated clear-cut that musicians have more "gray matter" in at least four regions of brain.
These are regions that are sometimes associated with skills useful to musicians - for example, the ability to co-ordinate movements in response to visual cues, or process auditory cues. (Professor Gottfried Schlaug) The other explanation maybe that those people were born with such differences, and that in turn leaded them to this profession. Professor Schlaug said: "Additional study is necessary to confirm causal relationships between intense motor training for a long period of time and structural changes in motor and non-motor related brain regions. We discussed how musician mind is affected by music. And what about people whom just listen music?
Their minds are affected with music too. Music really extends the capacity and abilities of humans mind. But before we will discuss this particular question I want you to understand one thin: the cognitive of music. What music is? Bunch of sounds, and each sound contain some information.
Many, many years ago in prehistoric times, when humanity just made first steps, people communicated with the help of sounds and gestures. Now we communicate with the help of language but sounds and music play an important role as well because, partly, we still are the animals. It is natural to us to find information in sounds. But thats not all. When musician compose something he is trying to reproduce his own emotions and feelings. Why ability to compose is such a great and rare gift?
Because composer put a bit of his own soul in each composition. Such music is inspired and cognitive and can inspire others. That were euphemisms, from now will be only facts. The devaluation of music because it involves emotion falsely assumes that music is not cognitive. Actually, music involves as many or more cognitive processes than any other school subject. (Dr.
Norman M. Weinberger, Director of MuSICA. ) Sight-reading music is always compared to language reading but they have very little in common. However, researches proved that sight-reading in music provides a unique window on the mind. Sight-reading music is reading an unknown score while performing music. T. W.
Goolsby has pointed out that music educators have adopted language reading as the basis for instruction and evaluation of sight-reading. There were questions about it whether this is appropriate... it seems that the mental strategy in music is to look ahead to determine where the score is "going" (obtaining the "larger picture"), making inferences about many of the details of the score (given a knowledge of e. g. , harmony in Western tonal music), thus obtaining a sufficient framework within which to look back to notes that are just ahead of the notes being performed -- and repeating this complex process again. (T.
W. Goolsby) Mind, that all this happens as often as five to six times per second (T. W. Goolsby). According to researches provided by T. W.
Goolsby Reading music apparently is not an instance of reading text, but a process unto itself. Thus, while having certain commonalities with other activities, sight-reading as a part of music seems to involve a unique combination of mental processes. Music is not only cognitive by itself; it also helps people to extend their abilities. There was an experiment called Kodaly training.
The was that there were two groups of students one of which got extensive music instruction, five days a week for 40 minutes per day, for seven months. Students were tested on reading ability at the start of the school year and then tested again at the end of the year. After training the music group exhibited significantly higher reading scores than did the control group, scoring in the 88 th percentile vs. the 72 nd percentile... after an additional year of Kodaly training, the experimental group was still superior to the control group (Dr. Norman M.
Weinberger, Director of MuSICA. ) There are many similar facts and test, which undeniable prove that music is cognitive. "Many of us became musicians to fill an emotional need, not knowing the mind was benefiting too. As more research ties the mind to health and emotional well being, music will become both medicine and exercise for the mind!" (Music Notes, Inc. ) I think that during our life we all have noticed that there is a great variety of music. It is very different, sometimes even opposite to one another. Lets find out (or at least try) why it so.
I think that differences of music depend greatly on period when it was composed and on culture in which it was composed. It is understandable why minuet and rocknroll are so much diverse. Just compare the way of living in 17 th century and in 50 th- 60 th of 20 th century. These are to opposite times and two opposite cultures. One of which is all unhurried and leisure and the other irrepressible and rebellion. I think that peoples culture has a great influence on music.
For example we will examine the music from different cultures. African music is somewhat very indigenous. Black Africa's early history was never written down, but has been passed from generation to generation by word of mouth instead. In West Africa for instance, the gifts - members of the musician caste - related the ongoing story of their people through the medium of music. African tribes communicated (and some of them still communicate) with the help of drums. It is clear that many cultural exchanges took place between the people of Africa, and between Africans and non-Africans, and that Africans music was affected and enriched by these exchanges, as was that of the peoples who had contact with Africans.
Indigenous African music is very little known abroad. According to History and Overview of African Music The non-African listener can find the music strange, difficult, and unattractive; and therefore often concludes that it is not of interest. Other factors influenced African music over time. Some of these are wars, invasions, migrations, new religions, climate changes, population, ecological and economic pressures. , through legacy of colonialism and exploitation combined with population and ecological and economic pressures are causing ongoing frictions, migrations across borders we have a great influence of African music on music all over the world. All in all African musician try to save the main concepts of their music. Traditional African musicians do not seek to combine sounds in a manner pleasing to the ear.
Their aim is simply to express life in all of its aspects through the medium of sound. The African musician does not merely attempt to imitate nature by music, but reverses the procedure by taking natural sounds, including spoken language, and incorporate them into the music. To the uninitiated this may result in cacophony, but in fact each sound has a particular meaning (History and Overview of African Music). Now, thanks to the popularization o African music in the world we have jazz and blues, rhytmnblues, soul, rap, funk, rocknroll, Reggie, etc. Today, mainstream Afrikaans and English popular music sounds very European or American to most listeners. So this music still has some indigenous features such as clear pronounced rhythm and melodiousness.
Japanese music was developed under the influence of different cultural elements (one of them variety of lands exist side by side in harmony, exerting a constant influence on the existing culture and thus producing a new culture as a result). The music listened to or played by the Japanese as part of their daily lives is extremely diverse. They enjoy various kinds of traditional Japanese music, Japanese popular songs, American pops, Western classics, and so on, although there are limits to each type's popularity. While music was once confined primarily to live performances in concert, the introduction of radio and later television brought it into homes of the masses.
The explosive popularity of electronic reproducing systems in recent years has made music an almost indispensable element in the daily lives of most Japanese. Traditional Japanese is very specific for us because it developed independently without any foreign influence. The Meiji Restoration of 1868 in Japan opened a new era in which Japan emerged from feudal isolation into the world community of nations. In those days, Western music was extensively introduced, especially in public education, as part of a concerted effort to modernize the nation. For the purpose of promoting musical education, a music re each institute (the Ongaku-torishirabe sho) was established in 1880 and musical textbooks, which combined Western and Japanese styles of music, were published for the first time. Instrumental music from the West permeated the general public through performances by the military bands of the Army and the Navy, organized with the cooperation of foreign countries such as Britain, France and Germany. (Development of Japanese Music) Somewhat extremely different music we can hear in Ireland.
It is quite well known thought the world. But the most impressive part of Ireland music is folk songs. Due to the historical events and unceasing struggle for independence ordinary people of the country were excluded from any voice in their fate. Periodically, their grievances boiled over, and were expressed in the only way open to them: rebellion (History of Ireland Song).
Thanks to emigration those songs were wide spread all over the world. According to History of Ireland Song For generations, these songs eased the pain of exile or subjection, and kept alive in the people their memories of the past and their hopes for the future. Bards in Ireland had great influence on people. They not only sing but also take place of sage or leader. With the help of the songs bards informed common people with news, retailed history events and inspired people on struggle. We shall never conquer Ireland while the Bards are there. (Elizabeth I of England. ) When Ireland music formed in the atmosphere of battles, the Chinese music has a philosophy in its base.
The ancient Chinese belief that music is meant not to amuse but to purify one's thoughts finds particular expression in the cult of the qin, a long zither possessing a repertory calling for great subtlety and refinement in performance and still popular among a small circle of scholar-musicians. (History of Chinese Music). Chinese music developed under the philosophy of Confucius who conceived of music in the highest sense as a means of calming the passions and of dispelling unrest and lust, rather than as a form of amusement. (History of Chinese Music) Traditionally Chinese believed that sound influences the harmony of the universe. Melody and tone color are prominent expressive features of Chinese music, and great emphasis is given to the proper articulation and inflection of each musical tone. Mostly Chinese music is based on pentatonic scale, but the seven-tone, or as expansion of pentatonic scale heptatonic scale, is also used. During the 20 th century Chinese music was considerably influenced by the Western sic. Later, when in 1949 was established Communist regime, special prominence was given to Russian music.
Modern Chinese music reflects the influences of both Russian and Western music. As conclusion I want to underline that each culture has its peculiarities in music due different ways of historical evolution but now those borders are slowly erased. Each country and culture take something from other cultures. As the result we get something extremely new.
Especially for me music means a lot because now it is actually all around. Music is an undeniable part of our life and mine as well. In films and plays it helps to convey us emotions and better understand the plot. Music can show feelings better than words. It is an international language which is understandable for all.
I cannot do my work without music because it helps me think. I may say that it gives me workable mood. Ive already said that if the music is inspired it can inspire itself. There were many occasions when music, different kinds of it, inspired me greatly. As music influences greatly on peoples mood people choose by themselves the music which surrounded them. Now with the development of digits technologies we can always listen to us favourite music.
I think that I convinced about cognitively of music. Do not hesitate and expand the borders of your mind. Just listen to music, really listen and try to understand it. Set you brain to work the results will be prominent. And its such a pleasurable way of mind work. Bibliography Abraham, K. (1913), Restriction and transformations of scopophilia in psychoneurotics.
In: Selected Papers on Psycho -Analysis. London: Hogarth Press, 1927 Schwarz, D. (1997), Listening subjects: music, psychoanalysis, culture. Durham: Duke University Press. Schwarz, D. (1997), Listening subjects: music, psychoanalysis, culture. Durham: Duke University Press. BBC, Music of the mind, Tuesday, 8 May, 2001, 23: 00 GMT 00: 00 UK < web > The Mind and Music Project < web > Dr.
Norman M. Weinberger, Director of MuSICA, Music and Mind, < web > History and Overview of African Music, < web > Development of Japanese Music, < web > History of Ireland Song, < web > History of Chinese Music, < web >
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