Brian's posts

As Gary pointed out, Brian's posts sometimes present explosively amusing
moments, none for me better than this epistomological conumdrum:

> FACT: Because of the phenomenon of
> categorical perception, none of us know
> we actually hear--as opposed to what
> our ear/brain system brainwashes us
> into *believing* we hear. The only way to
> actually *determine* what you're
> hearing (rather than what you *think*
> you're hearing) is to use double-blind
> psychoacoustic tests.

Well, none of the music that I'm familiar with is listened to with
double-blind tests. We all hear just what we believe we hear. (How is
hearing otherwise possible?) I agree that culture, learning, and a whole
range of acoustical factors determine how we hear intervals (or virtually
anything!), and, whether we as composers choose to embrace those factors or
work against them, they are the foundation for musical listening.

To say that listeners "prefer" a certain interval or that they find it more
"consonant" in a psychoacoustical test is useless without a musical
context. Brian in an earlier post seemed to support a subjective definition
of consonance and dissonance, but this seems to be contradicted by the
many sources he quotes to try to disprove the theory that consonance is
determined by the relative smallness of numbers in a ratio.

Don't get me wrong, though. I think that psychoacoustical research is very
valuable for composers. The impressionist painters were able to exploit
discoveries in the science of vision to invent new and artistically
effective techniques. But does their use of science make the art better? Can
we say that science therefore "supports" the impressionist techniques over
those of, say, the cubists? Of course not.

It is meaningless to say that discoveries in science "support" any aesthetic
position, and the choice of a tuning system is an artistic one, just as is
the rhythm, the melody, the harmony (if, indeed, such elements exist at
all).

When I write a piece, I don't see any choice but to write it the way I want
to hear it. Maybe my ears are "fooling" me, but I would rather trust them
than numbers in a prestigious scientific journal. My ultimate aim is for
listeners to share enough of my cultural background, learning, and
physiology for my composition to effectively communicate a rewarding musical
experience.

Bill Alves
alves@hmc.edu
http://www2.hmc.edu/~alves/


Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 9 Oct 1995 16:53 +0100
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id HAA08810; Mon, 9 Oct 1995 07:52:48 -0700
Date: Mon, 9 Oct 1995 07:52:48 -0700
Message-Id: <9510090747.aa29053@cyber.cyber.net>
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu