Subject: Message of twelve-tone serialism for auditory science From: Martin Braun <nombraun@xxxxxxxx> Date: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:10:25 +0200 List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>Thanks to Bob Gjerdingen for reporting his experience with the appreciation of twelve-tone serialism. Actually, beyond the issue of consonance, the episode of twelve-tone serialism (Hauer, Schönberg, etc.) may be of particular interest for some other aspects of hearing. The idea that tones can have a meaning beyond an intervallic context is today well supported by our knowledge of pitch maps in the auditory brain. In particular the pitch-class map (chroma map) in the auditory thalamus can be considered as the primary neural origin of all types of absolute pitch and absolute tone qualities. References: Morest, D.K., 1965. The laminar structure of the medial geniculate body of the cat. J. Anat. 99, 143-160. Morel, A., 1980. Codage de sons dans le corps génouille médian du chat: évaluation de l'organisation tonotopique de ses différents noyaux. Thèse de l'Université de Lausanne, Faculté des Sciences, Janis Druck und Verlag, Zürich, pp. 1-154. Imig, T.J., Morel, A., 1985. Tonotopic organization in ventral nucleus of medial geniculate body in the cat. J Neurophysiol 53, 309-340. (Note data series from electrode penetration P1 in their Figs. 6 and 7 showing stepwise frequency representation with discrete clusters around 0.6, 1.2, and 2.4 kHz) Wright, A.A., Rivera, J.J., Hulse, S.H., Shyan, M., Neiworth, J.J., 2000. Music perception and octave generalization in rhesus monkeys. J. Exp. Psychol. Gen. 129, 291-307. Cetas, J.S., Velenovsky, D.S., Price, R.O., Sinex, D.G., McMullen, N.T., 2001. Frequency organization and cellular lamination in the medial geniculate body of the rabbit. Hear. Res. 155, 113-123. Braun, M., 2001. Speech mirrors norm-tones: absolute pitch as a normal but precognitive trait. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. - Acoust. Res. Lett. Online 2, 85-90. Cetas, J.S., Price, R.O., Velenovsky, D.S., Crowe, J.J., Sinex, D.G., McMullen, N.T., 2002. Cell types and response properties of neurons in the ventral division of the medial geniculate body of the rabbit. J. Comp. Neurol. 445, 78-96. Braun, M., 2002. Absolute pitch in emphasized speech. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. - Acoust. Res. Lett. Online 3, 77-82. Cetas, J.S., Price, R.O., Crowe, J.J., Velenovsky, D.S., McMullen, N.T., 2003. Dendritic orientation and laminar architecture in the rabbit auditory thalamus. J. Comp. Neurol. 458, 307-317. Braun, M., Chaloupka, V. (2005) Carbamazepine induced pitch shift and octave space representation. Hear. Res. 210, 85-92. Braun, M. (2006) A retrospective study of the spectral probability of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions: Rise of octave shifted second mode after infancy. Hear. Res. 215, 39-46. Martin --------------------------------------------------------------------- Martin Braun Neuroscience of Music S-671 95 Klässbol Sweden web site: http://w1.570.telia.com/~u57011259/index.htm ----- Original Message ----- From: "robert gjerdingen" <r-gjerdingen@xxxxxxxx> To: <AUDITORY@xxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, August 26, 2007 1:41 PM Subject: Re: sensory consonance > > On Aug 25, 2007, at 10:25 PM, PORRES wrote: > >> for Christ Sake, which world do you live in? Demand a survey for >> the obvious? I am speechless >> > > When I hear the deity invoked on Sunday morning concerning sensory > consonance, I suspect that we have reached a state that Koreans > describe as "Talking East, Hearing West." > > Permit me to attempt an analysis of the miscommunication. > > There is the world of music heard in ordinary life, a world where the > statistics of performances, recordings, downloads, and degrees of > recognizability count. That would appear to be Martin Braun's > reference. > > There is the world of music conservatories and departments, where > various (sometimes erroneous) standard narratives are taught > concerning the history and craft of music. That would appear to be > the reference for Martin's perplexed respondents. > > I once studied in a conservatory with one of Schoenberg's best pupils > (Leonard Stein). I once worked in a dot.com music company where > popularity was the leading indicator of significance. The two worlds > rarely come in contact with each other, and each assumes the other is > irrelevant. And in their own way, each is correct. > > Could we now move on? > > Best wishes, > Bob Gjerdingen > The School of Music > Northwestern University