Music and the Brain

Laurence O’Donnell “Music is so naturally united with us that we cannot be free from it even if we so desired” (Boethius cited by Storr). Music’s interconnection with society can be seen throughout history. Every known culture on the earth has music. Music seems to be one of the basic actions of humans. However, early music was not handed down from generation to generation or recorded. Hence, there is no official record of “prehistoric” music. Even so, there is evidence of prehistoric music from the findings of flutes carved from bones. The influence of music on society can be clearly seen from modern history. Music helped Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence. When he could not figure out the right wording for a […] Read More

WHAT CAN MUSIC TELL US ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE MIND?

A PLATONIC MODEL Brian D. Josephson Cavendish Laboratory, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HE, U.K email: bdj10@cam.ac.uk and Tethys Carpenter Department of Music, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Egham, Surrey TW2 0EX, U.K. (conference proceedings to be published by MIT Press) ABSTRACT We present an account of the phenomenon of music based upon the hypothesis that there is a close parallel between the mechanics of life and the mechanics of mind, a key factor in the correspondence proposed being the existence of close parallels between the concepts of gene and musical idea. The hypothesis accounts for the specificity, complexity, functionality and apparent arbitrariness of musical structures. An implication of the model is that music should be seen as a phenomenon of transcendental character, involving […] Read More