Science of music appreciation and World Music....

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 04 Aug 2006, 00:32

If you go to http://www.wamu.org/programs/dr/06/08/03.php#11705 and listen to the Diane Rehm show at 11:00 with Daniel Levitin - maybe CML/Arun/VK can help us understand some of these concepts vis-a-vis CM....
1. for instance, Dr. Levitin says that music from a flute and other high-pitched instruments invoke happiness regardless of the notes played, which appears to be in variance with our system, whereby rAgAs (or a combination of notes) is used to project a particular mood....
2. if we continue with that analogy, for people interested in fusion pieces (esp dancers) some tips from here can be useful when they search for pieces to depict a particular mood - these pieces are becoming more common - recently, Krithika Rajagopalan (of the Natyam School, Chicago) danced (bharatanATyam) to Yo Yo Ma's live performance.
3. doesn't the first track - Duke Ellington's 'Don't get around much anymore' sound a wee BIT like music from the song 'ajIb dAstAn hai yeh'?

Dr. Levitin actually is of the opinion that music evolved before speech..... and he has very interesting ideas on teh role music and dance played many years ago (:D)

4. there is a Bulgarian musician called Azis (he is totally unconventional and shocking - his hair, moustache and goatee are all silver white, and he wears womans clothes - miniskirts, etc...) - the music sounds very much like tribal tunes from Assam (bichuA and others from madhumatI for instance)

Ravi

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 04 Aug 2006, 01:22

I will have to spend some time at the link.. Thanks Ravi.

>Dr. Levitin actually is of the opinion that music evolved before speech.....

I read recently that on the receiving side, when looked at a PET scan, different parts of the brain get activated for language related sounds as opposed to music. That does not necessarily contradict Dr. Levitin's claim but it will have to be somehow reconciled with that fact.

But that statement is in accordance with the encouraging words music teachers use: 'if you can speak you can sing.. you just have got to train yourself to "speak" only specific frequencies/notes/swaras". Most people are able to hum for a few seconds a tune they hear ( the one exception is a chinese colleague of mine. She just can not hum a tune no matter how simple it is..)

cmlover · Post by **cmlover** » 04 Aug 2006, 01:44

Thanks Shankar
A veritable slew of ideas for research by a neuroscientists! Quite a few are applicable more for CM than WM itself! In my view CM is more complex in view of the bhakti element woven in!

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 05 Aug 2006, 07:56

Ravi,
Pre-copyright days--chOri chOri from all quarters--tamizh from hindi, hindi from videsi, and thus tamizh, telugu from vidEsi and so it went. Tamizh started copying hindi tunes starting from AVM's vAzhkai days, cml?? Vaijayanthi's debut film. chup chup khaDi ho became eNNI ENNI pArkka manam and so on ad infinitum.
Of course, hindi music men were listening to jazz--Coolji has posted a shankar-jaikishen jazz piece (their version, nice) somewhere. So, Duke Ellington was easy to steal from. is mE ajIb dAstAn to nahin--ajIb piracy, yes!

By the way, I once heard Duke Ellington and his ensemble perform in the Riverside Church in NY, all in pink tuxedos and sparkling--I had an aisle seat in the pew, and they walked past me playing divinely (what do you expect? It was a church) and took their places and played on. 'Freedom, freedom' gave me goose bumps. It reverberated in that beautiful church that night and I was dazed. When I saw the Duke perform on television in ensuing years, it was all a mere shadow...

rshankar · Post by **rshankar** » 05 Aug 2006, 08:14

Great recollection of the Duke, Arasi.
BTW, I remember vAzhkai -
un kaN unnai EmAtrinAl yen mEl kObam kolvadu yEn? DaDaDA DaDadA DaDADaDA

I have a chitrahAr (oLiyum oliyum) piece with the (MLV) song from that movie with vyjayantI's graceful dancing - nandagOpAlanODu nAn ADuvENE....

I assume there were numerous 'copies'/'piracies' etc in those days... especially in movies which were simultaneously made in Hindi and tamizh, like rAmarAjyam...like bIna madhur and vINaiyin, and Chembai's favorite 'kuhU kuhU bOlE' (the film was swapnasundarI) and the tamizh 'tIshulAvudE'

Ravi

arasi · Post by **arasi** » 05 Aug 2006, 09:16

en mEl 'kObam unDavadEn' from vAzhkai.

This one is for cMLoVer: Ravi's reference to gOpAlanODu--1. MLV sings it!--and
2. Yes, we rendered it in pidgin english too: cowboyiyODU I playuvEnE--nanda cowboyi
......I slowu slowA cat liku noisu dUvAmalE runnuvEn!

Ravi talks about oliyum oLiyum. We saw them in their original time frame! adu anda nAL. oliyum oLiyum saRRU mandamAgi varuvadu inda nAL...

vasanthakokilam · Post by **vasanthakokilam** » 05 Aug 2006, 10:22

I listened to the show today...definitely my cup of tea

Very interesting.. What an enviable research job that author has...And getting paid handsomely for that? I am jealous.

If there are funds available, it will be interesting to put some one under a PET or fMRI scan and see the brain activity when played songs in the 72 melakarthas. Since CM is already rich in classification, it will be neat to see if any brain phenomena falls along the lines of the 12 chakras.

One caller to the program talks about musicians associating music with colors. I have heard that before. Do any of you do that? If so, how does that go?