The WELL: inkwell.vue.338: Daniel Levitin, The World In Six Songs

#103: Gail Williams (gail) Thu 30 Oct 08 11:57

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:57:00 PDT

Thanks for this discussion, all. (The other places within The WELL that may be interesting for continued exploration would most likely be two excellent conferences, music and newmusic ) [Read entire topic]

#102: (dana) Thu 30 Oct 08 10:27

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:27:00 PDT

Thank you, Daniel and Scott, for a great discussion. We're turning our Inkwell spotlight to a new conversation today, but everyone is welcome to continue here as long as you like. [Read entire topic]

#101: Bryan Higgins (bryan) Wed 29 Oct 08 13:58

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:58:00 PDT

A friend who is really into the subject likes "Sweet Anticipation" as well as "Exploring the Musical Mind" by John Sloboda. [Read entire topic]

#100: Daniel Levitin (daniellevitin) Wed 29 Oct 08 11:24

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:24:00 PDT

Emotion and Meaning in Music, and Music, The ARts and Ideas). I read Jourdain's book and although it is a bit dated, it is also a good read. For the more ambitious/advanced reader, I strongly recommend Diana Deutch's "Psychology of Music" book from Academic Press.

There has been an exponential increase in research articles on music and the brain over the last 20 years. This is indeed a heady time. As my old boss David Liddle (ex Xerox-PARC) used to say, it's a fertile field with a lot of low-hanging fruit. [Read entire topic]

#99: Daniel Levitin (daniellevitin) Wed 29 Oct 08 11:22

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:22:00 PDT

I've read all the books on music and the brain. I had the opportunity to read Oliver's in draft form. The books are really complimentary in that there isn't really any substantial duplication from one book to another. If you're interested in the field, my books and Oliver's are perhaps the best place to start (they're intended for a lay audience) and then the excellent books by David Huron (Sweet Anticipation) and Ani Patel (Music, Language and the Brain) are higher level and rewarding. Two books by Leonard Meyer are considered classics in the field ( [Read entire topic]

#98: Scott Underwood (esau) Tue 28 Oct 08 19:52

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:52:00 PDT

It seems like it must be a heady time in the field, which you described as being small enough that you all are relatively familiar with each other, personally and academically. Even the lay reader gets a chance to participate not only with your books, but Oliver Sacks's excellent "Musicophilia," Robert Jourdain's "Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy" (which I own but I haven't yet read), and several other books Amazon reveals are available on the subject.

Did you read Sacks's books, or any of the others in this space? [Read entire topic]

#97: Daniel Levitin (daniellevitin) Tue 28 Oct 08 18:45

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:45:00 PDT

[96] My lab has 15 researchers - full time technical staff, visiting professors, doctoral students, post-doctoral students, and undergrads. We look at the science of musical sound from a number of different methodological perspectives, using brain scans (neuroimaging), psychophysics, and studies of special populations such as Williams Syndrome, autism and Down Syndrome. When the special populations are defined by a genetic abnormality, it helps us to better make links between genes, brain development, and behavior.

I have about 25 projects going on in parallel. We've just finished a 3 year project on the nature of music cognition amongst people with autistic spectrum disorders. I can't (ethically) talk about that work until it is reviewed by peer-reviewers, but I can say we found some important structural differences in the way that individuals with ASD understand music. We're also working on understanding the perceptual differences in mp3 vs CD vs SACD; absolute pitch perception; the perception of timing; and the way in which timing and amplitude variation in music conveys emotion.

I'm able to travel and write books and play music because I have a very talented group of people in the lab who do most of the work. We meet regularly in person, by phone or email, and that's how things keep on keeping on. One measure of their talent is that I've been able to confer 5 doctoral degrees (PhD) in the 8 years I've been at McGill, and supervised the training of 3 post-doctoral fellows, and all are now employed at top places such as UCLA, University of Michigan, and University of British Columbia. [Read entire topic]

#96: Scott Underwood (esau) Mon 27 Oct 08 19:51

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:51:00 PDT

Dan, maybe you can talk about your current projects. You seem to be balancing science, book promotion, and music -- I note you'll be playing a rock festival for scientists in spring.

What's going on at the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill? Can you explain the workings of the lab and the topics you concentrate on?

For instance, I note you research the musical functions of people diagnosed with the genetic disorder Williams Syndrome, which sounds intriguing. [Read entire topic]

#95: Daniel Levitin (daniellevitin) Mon 27 Oct 08 18:18

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:18:00 PDT

[94] You're absolutely right. IN fact I caught this at the copyedit stage but the correction didn't make it into the book. Publishing is fraught with pitfalls of all sorts. Future printings will correct this. Sorry about that! [Read entire topic]

#94: Bryan Higgins (bryan) Mon 27 Oct 08 17:44

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 17:44:00 PDT

Daniel,

I enjoyed the final chapters of "Six Songs," especially the discussion of ritual. I did find one erratum in the description of "Pomp and Circumstance":

The first fifteen notes are all stepwise and then the sixteenth note of the piece takes a large ascending leap of a perfect fourth immediately followed by a falling perfect fifth, a move that grabs our attention.

There are in fact a couple of falls of a fourth before that, between notes 4 and 5 and notes 10 and 11. Probably you meant there are two jumps in a row for the first time at the point you mention. [Read entire topic]