Цитаты из книги Tu cerebro y la música

В работе людей искусства и ученых есть похожие стадии: сначала «мозговой штурм», затем этапы тестирования и внесения уточнений, которые обычно включают заранее определенные процедуры, но при этом сопровождаются творческим решением задач.

Rosch, following Wittgenstein, showed that categories do not always have clear boundaries - they have fuzzy boundaries. Questions of membership are a matter of debate and there can be differences of opinion: Is white a color? Is hip-hop really music? If the surviving members of Queen perform without Freddie Mercury, am I still seeing Queen (and is it worth $150 a ticket)?

Yes, for a female songbird, size matters; it indicates male-bird intellect and, by extension, a source of potentially good bird genes. This was shown in a study that played different songs over loudspeakers to female birds. The birds ovulated more quickly in the presence of a large birdsong repertoire than in the presence of a small one. Some male songbirds will sing their courtship song until they drop dead from exhaustion.

И, как и в изобразительном искусстве, в музыке важно не только то, какие ноты звучат, но и то, какие не звучат

Еще церковь запретила увеличенную кварту музыкальный интервал, например, между нотами си и фа-диез, также известный как тритон (в «Вестсайдской истории» Леонарда Бернстайна Тони поет имя Мария с этим интервалом). Увеличенная кварта казалась настолько диссонансной, что была признана творением Люцифера, и церковь назвала ее Diabolus in musica.

Офицальное определение, данное Американским акустическим обществом, состоит в том, что тембр - характерика звука, не связанная с его громкостью и высотой. Вот вам и научная точность!

We let them into our living rooms and bedrooms when no one else is around. We let them into our ears, directly, through earbuds and headphones, when we’re not communicating with anybody else in the world.

We tell ourselves that if we only listen to it enough times, we may begin to understand it and to like it as much as our friends do. Yet, we recall other times in our lives when we invested hours of prime listening time in an artist and never arrived at the point where we “got it.” Trying to appreciate new music can be like contemplating a new friendship in that it takes time, and sometimes there is nothing you can do to speed it up.

When the infant looks at one speaker, it starts to play music or some other sound, and when he looks at the other speaker, it starts to play different music or a different sound. The infant quickly learns that he can control what is playing by where he is looking; he learns, that is, that the conditions of the experiment are under his control.

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of these factors; caring leads to attention, and together they lead to measurable neurochemical changes. Dopamine, the neurotransmitter associated with emotional regulation, alertness, and mood, is released, and the dopaminergic system aids in the encoding of the memory trace.

Composers imbue music with emotion by knowing what our expectations are and then very deliberately controlling when those expectations will be met, and when they won’t. The thrills, chills, and tears we experience from music are the result of having our expectations artfully manipulated by a skilled composer and the musicians who interpret that music. ... Songs that we keep coming back to for years play around with expectations just enough that they are always at least a little bit surprising.

When we fabricate a story, it is almost always the left brain doing the fabricating. The left brain makes up stories based on the limited information it gets. Usually it gets the story right, but it will go to great lengths to sound coherent.

We have a feeling of what it is like to be me, what it is like to be me reading a book, and what it is like to think about what it is like to be me. How can me be reduced so unceremoniously to axons, dendrites, and ion channels? It feels like we are something more. But this feeling could be an illusion, just as it certainly feels as though the earth is standing still, not spinning around on its axis at a thousand miles per hour.

Dopamine is released by the nucleus accumbens and is involved in mood regulation and the coordination of movement. It is most famous for being part of the brain’s pleasure and reward system. When drug addicts get their drug of choice, or when compulsive gamblers win a bet — even when chocoholics get cocoa — this is the neurotransmitter that is released. Its role — and the important role played by the nucleus accumbens — in music was unknown until 2005.

When the singer hits just the right frequency — the resonant frequency of the glass — it causes the molecules of the glass to vibrate at their natural rate, and they vibrate themselves apart.