Archives for category: Music
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Music as Indicator of Juvenile Misbehavior

09/01/2013 //
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Afbeelding

Conclusion of a research done by a Dutch Professor of pop music: adolescents listening to ‘non-conventional’ music – metal, gothic, hardcore house, hip hop – have a much greater chance of becoming involved in vandalism, shoplifting, or brawls than kids listening to top 40, classical music, jazz, or singer-songwriters.

What do this Dutch Professor, the Taliban, Richard Taruskin, and Frank Zappa (although with a wink) have in common? Somehow they all seem to agree with what Plato said some 25 centuries ago: (certain) music should be forbidden in order to create and maintain a decent and stable society. Yeah, music is dangerous …

Want to read the whole article? Click here (in Dutch)

Categories Blog Posts, Music, Newspaper Article

Music and Philosophy Conference 2013

14/12/2012 //
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Afbeelding

3rd Annual Conference of the Royal Musical Association Music and Philosophy Study Group. Department of Music and Department of Philosophy, King’s College London
Friday and Saturday, 19-20 July 2013.

Conference theme 2013: ‘Embodiment and the Physical’

Philosophers and musicologists have provided various ways of thinking through music in relation to its concrete particularity as sound, and its bodily nature in performance and hearing. In particular, they have paid attention to the phenomenology of listening; to the physical nature of sound and its relation to our perceptual experience; and to the bodily aspects of musical performance and their inscription in the gestures of musical scores. What exactly is the relation between sound and music? How is the body involved in the experience of sound, and of music? When answering such questions, what can philosophers learn from musicologists, and vice versa? Music is often conceived very abstractly, and music as ‘embodied thought’ both poses challenges and opens up new possibilities. This year’s (optional) theme seeks to encourage further philosophical and musicological debate about music within the area of ‘embodiment and the physical’.

More information is available on the conference website.

Categories Conference, Music, Philosophy

Understanding Music – Enjoying Music

10/12/2012 //
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According to the German studio Finally one cannot understand music. One can be seduced by music, or simply enjoy it. But to understand it – that’s impossible. See their animation below.

The main idea reminds me of an interview Pierre Boulez once had on a French television station with a writer whose name I’ve forgotten. First music is a mystery, the writer told Boulez. Then, after studying it, everything becomes clear. But, finally, with the performance, it becomes a mystery again.

The central question, however, remains: can some knowledge about music enhance the enjoyment or is knowledge sometimes obstructing certain encounters with music? Or do both statements contain some kind of truth?

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Categories Music, Newspaper Article, Philosophy, Science

Music and Ethics

13/10/2012 //
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Yeah! It’s there, my (co-author Nanette Nielsen from Nottingham U) new book on music and ethics. With the final answers on how music ‘as music’ might contribute to the (philosophical) discourses on ethics and to concrete moral behavior. Keywords: listening, interaction, and engagement. From Alban Berg to Jacques Derrida, from Bob Dylan to Alain Badiou, from Sachiko M to Gilles Deleuze, from the chants of football fans to Zygmunt Bauman, and from Richard Taruskin to sonic weapons …

More info: click here

Categories Books, Improvisation, Music, Philosophy, Sound Art

Music and Political Campaigns

13/09/2012 //
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On September 12 elections were held in The Netherlands. What kind of music did the political parties choose while they were waiting for the final results and just before the party leaders went on stage to give their speech? The choice for a particular tune says a lot about the party’s mood, whether they’ve lost or won. Sometimes the choice is rather awkward: the liberal (right-winged) party playing Coldplay’s ‘Viva la Vida’ for example. Did they really understand the lyrics? Moreover, the clip of ‘Viva la Vida’ starts with a bursting red rose – the symbol of their biggest adversary, the social democrats.
Read more here (in Dutch)

Categories Music, Newspaper Article

Challenging Musical Ontologies

28/08/2012 //
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Call for Papers

This Royal Musical Association (RMA) Study Day seeks to engage with conflicting yet complementary dialogues regarding the possibility (or even non-possibility) of an ontology of music. In recent years there has been lively debate between diverse positions rooted in musicology and both continental and analytical philosophy; the purpose of this Study Day is to highlight these differences, whilst emphasising shared ground and suggesting ways forward. To this end, the Study Day – which is supported by the RMA Music and Philosophy Study Group – will provide a platform for postgraduate students to present their research and to discuss challenges posed to, and possibilities inherent in, commonly held assumptions regarding musical ontology from an array of interdisciplinary viewpoints.

Topics for consideration
– The question of musical meaning between musicological and analytical-philosophical traditions and contrasts therein
– New ontological proposals in the ontology of musical works
– ‘Early’ music as the root of modern ontologies
– Composers as the traditional arbiters of what constitutes a musical work
– The metaontology of music
– Video games and indeterminacy (and the challenges they pose)
– Historical and ethnographic perspectives
– Phenomenologies of music
– Popular music
– Insights from outside of the humanities: scientific, sociological etc.

Categories Conference, Music, Philosophy

Favorite Music part 6: Miles Davis ‘Jean Pierre’

22/08/2012 //
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Categories Improvisation, Music

How Music Affects Workplace Performance

22/08/2012 //
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In biological terms, melodious sounds help encourage the release of dopamine in the reward area of the brain, as would eating a delicacy, looking at something appealing or smelling a pleasant aroma. During a study involving information technology specialists, it was found that those who listen to music complete their tasks more quickly and come up with better ideas than those who don’t, because the music improves their mood. See the whole article here.

Categories Music, Newspaper Article

Music and Emotions

15/05/2012 //
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The 9th International Symposium on Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval (CMMR) Music and Emotions will take place at Queen Mary University of London on 19-22 June 2012.

Music can undoubtedly trigger various types of emotions within listeners. The power of music to affect our mood may explain why music is such a popular and universal art form. This is probably due to the fact that, as human listeners, we are hard-wired to enjoy music. Research in cognitive science has shown that some music pieces can enhance our intellectual faculties in given conditions because they change our mood and induce positive affects. Music psychology studies have shown our ability to discriminate various types of expressive intentions and emotions in the composer/performer musical message. But the understanding of the genesis of musical emotions, the mapping of musical variables to emotional responses, and the automatic retrieval of high-level descriptors characterising emotions, remain complex research problems.

For more info see here.

Categories Conference, Music

Pop Venues in Rotterdam: Austerity Policy Disastrous

10/05/2012 //
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Pop venues in Rotterdam sound the alarm: the austerity politics of the local authorities will result in a disaster for the pop climate in the city. Read more here (in Dutch).

Categories Music, Newspaper Article
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