Culture and Cognition

Two recent studies explore how one's cultural heritage affects the perception of music. Sarah Trehub et al (U. of Toronto) found that Japanese children (5-6 years old) were more sensitive to pitch changes than Canadian children, identifying semitone shifts in familiar TV theme songs more readily than the Canadian children. The authors suggest the pitch-accent based Japanese language as a potential cause for the heightened pitch memory, as well as the greater prevalence of early childhood music education in Japan. Since Japanese children have to distinguish different pitch levels to understand their language, their pitch memory gets exercised and (apparently) develops more quickly. And since the Japanese children learn musical pitch labels in greater numbers than their Canadian counterparts, they are more used to the concept of pitch change in the first place.

Demorest et al (U. of Washington and UCLA) compared American and Turkish listeners, trained (at least 6 years of study in their primary area and university training) and untrained. These listeners were played musical pieces from Western, Turkish, and Chinese classical traditions. The participants then listened to excerpts, half from the previous examples and half from new music from the same styles, attempting to identify which excerpts they had already heard. Musical expertise played no role in the ability to remember excerpts within each style. But Americans were much better at recognizing Western excerpts than Turkish or Chinese excerpts, and Turkish listeners were much better at identifying Turkish excerpts than Chinese excerpts (and still significantly better than Western excerpts though not as great a difference). Since Turkish musicians also learn Western music theory and history, it is not surprising that they still recognized these excerpts at higher than chance.

Both studies show that enculturation has a significant affect on the development of musical memory, whether at the large scale of recognizing pieces or at the small scale of remembering note patterns. Here is a great example of adaptation, based on social environmental stresses rather than physical environmental stresses.* Japanese children adapt to the social demands of language and education by learning to identify pitch changes quickly. Americans and Turks adapt to their own cultures, recognizing unfamiliar elements of those cultures pretty well. Perhaps genetics will have to be tested with people adopted into different cultures than their birth countries, but the conclusions are pretty cool, if not that surprising.

SE Trehub, EG Schellenberg, and T Nakata (2008) "Cross-cultural perspectives on pitch memory." Journal of Experimental Child Psychology (e-pub).

SM Demorest, SJ Morrison, MN Beken, and D Jungbluth (2008) "Lost in translation: an enculturation effect in music memory performance." Music Perception 25, 213-223.


*I assume that Turkish and Japanese physical environments are not enough different from Canadian or U.S. environments to be the cause. Any corrections?

I hear my name not being spoken

Yes, I took another of my unannounced blog breaks. This break was due to a succession of Holy Week, Spring Break, and the sad news of my grandfather's death. But I'm now ready to face the music, so to speak. First up, I hear that my rankings have (more) competition. I'm fine with that, though I feel that ACD should have paid the courtesy of linking to one of my previous rankings, or at least mentioning the prior art of my rankings. It certainly would be fitting, since he clearly critiques my methodology in his own description of his criteria. A link at that point would allow his readers to judge for themselves the differences in rankings between his system and my two systems.

I'm curious why he omits group blogs or institutional blogs. I can understand keeping out the "index blogs" since they don't contribute new content to discussions of classical music. I also understand omitting e-zines, since I do the same. E-zines are an electronic form of MSM, thus different from the gate-crashing blogs. But ionarts is a major player in classical music blogging, as is Sequenza21. [Edit: I now see that ionarts is included, even though it is clearly a group blog. Same with Dial 'M'. So what is a group blog, in ACD's definition?] They both generate and influence discussions throughout the blogosphere, which is presumably what ACD's counting of backlinks is measuring. So why cut out influential blogs, merely because they have more than one author?

Anywho, back to my taxes. I'll post my semi-annual top 50-ish in June, so start earning those links!

Musical tribute

Speaking of the Five Year War, Jay Batzner found this lovely musical tribute:

Five Years

Tonight I went to a vigil at the town square. It was friggin' cold, and there weren't a lot of us, but people shared stories of PTSD, veterans denied benefits, and other things that inspired us to keep speaking out. A dedicated group here in Greencastle has a vigil every Thursday at 12:15. I can't go because of meetings, but I was glad to make it tonight. Next week is Spring Break, so I hope to take the kids to the vigil on Thursday. At this moment PBS is playing the American Masters special on Pete Seeger, who just sang "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy" and is now singing "Bring them Home" (Bruce's cover is better than anything else I could find on Youtube). Quite appropriate, tonight.

Wow!

I had been strongly leaning towards Barack Obama before, but his speech has completely bowled me over. The nuance, the honesty, the clarity of thought and appreciation of opposing views, it was a thing of beauty. This is the second politician I've been truly excited about, and the first presidential candidate (Russ Feingold is the other). Even if you are a staunch Republican who has already filled out the ballot for John McCain, please read or listen to this speech. You may not change your vote, but I guarantee you will learn something about race and class, just as I have today.

What about prescription drugs?

Dave Munger has posted the results of the survey on music preference and substance use I wrote about last week. The important result: "Far from being wine snobs, it appears that most Classical fans prefer to avoid pretty much all mind-altering substances." That's because the music blows our minds, dude! Seriously, the results do debunk many stereotypes, except Electronica fans and their precious Ecstasy.

FriPod: Pi

Today is Pi Day (3.14). In honor of that, I have listed all of the tracks on my iTunes that have the duration 3:14. They are ranked by length within that one second. It's amazing how relevant many of these songs/movements are to my day, especially 1-3, 5, 8, 10, 15, 16, 17, and 19.

1. "You're My Home" by Billy Joel/John Lennon/Paul McCartney, performe by Billy Joel on Piano Man.
2. "I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me" by Clarence Gaskill - Jimmy McHugh, performed by Lionel Hampton on Flying Home (1942-1945).
3. "The End Of A Love Affair" by E. C. Redding, performed by Wynton Marsalis on Popular Songs: The Best Of Wynton Marsalis.
4. French Suite No. 4 - 4. Sarabande by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Sviatoslav Richter on Sviatoslav Richter: The authorised recording.
5. "The Vagabond" from Songs Of Travel by Ralph Vaughan Williams, performed by Bryn Terfel, Malcolm Martineau.
6. "Frank Speaking" by Bill Russo, performed by Stan Kenton on New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm.
7. "The Palace and creatures of Kashchei disappear" from The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky, performed by Philharmonia Orchestra; Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor.
8. "La Danse De Puck" from Préludes - Book 1 by Claude Debussy, performed by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
9. The Nutcracker. I. Overture by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, performed by Orchestra Of The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden-Mark Ermler.
10. "(I'll Be Glad When You're Dead) You Rascal You" by Sam Theard, performed by Jack Teagarden & His Orchestra on Jazz: The Singers 1930s.
11. "Platform 9 And 3 Quarters And The Journey To Hogwarts" from Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone soundtrack by John Williams.
12. "The Sixth Day: Nun scheint in vollem Glanze der Himmel" from The Creation by Franz Joseph haydn, performed by John Eliot Gardiner; English Baroque Soloists, Monteverdi Choir.
13. "At The Sign Of The Prancing Pony" from The Lord Of The Rings - The Fellowship Of The Ring Soundtrack by Howard Shore.
14. "Blue Lou" by E. Sampson, performed by Duke Ellington on 22 Original Big Band Recordings.
15. Lullaby and Doina for flute, clarinet, double bass and string quartet - Doina by Osvaldo Golijov, performed by Tara Helen O'Connor, flute; Todd Palmer, clarinet; Mark Dresser, double bass; The St. Lawrence String Quartet.
16. "Laura soave, vita di mia vita" by Andrea Gabrieli, performed by Paul McCreesh; Gabrieli Consort & Players on Politics, Dialogues and Pastorales.
17. "O Ihr Zärtlichen" from Rilke Songs (1997-2001) For Voice And Piano by Peter Lieberson, performed by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson And Peter Serkin.
18. Interlude from Daphnis et Chloé by Mauric Ravel, performed by Charles Munch, Conductor / Boston Symphony Orchestra / Robert Shaw, Director / New England Conservatory Chorus And Alumni Chorus.
19. "I Am Weary (Let Me Rest)" by Pete Roberts, performed by The Cox Family on O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.
20. "Petit Concert" from L'histoire Du Soldat by Igor Stravinsky on Stravinsky Plays Stravinsky.
21. "Donna" by Miles Davis on Volume One.
22. Partita #3 In E, BWV 1006 - 1. Preludio by J.S. Bach, performed by Jascha Heifetz.