At 06:38 PM 10/8/2005, Dan Gutwein wrote:
>... the language part
>of the brain "rounds off" the relations to "learned scales"...If a
>performer ... is asked to compare
>pitches when listening to a single monophonic source ..., Joe's
>brain (not his inner ear) must construct
>a memory of pitch no.1 while at the same time the wave-lengths of the
>evolving wave-train continue to enter his inner-ear. ... The vast
>majority of neuroscientists and cognitive
>scientists agree that these memories are nothing more than neurological
>"switches" that "turn on" learned concepts - received theories!
Agreed, although this seems to imply that no performers or listeners
in any music culture are capable of recognizing minute deviations
from these ideal intervals. If so, I disagree, but these
observations do apply to outsiders.
In an experimental setting, we know that hearers can discriminate a
difference of only five cents (one 20th of the semitone). In the
real world of performance, I verified that the best Turkish
performers consistently nailed some ideal intervals within five cents
or less. The outsider to this tradition needs at least a year or two
of constant immersion to begin to produce passable intervals.
Slipping into another musical culture, speaking the musical language
without an accent requires devotion and patience. One American woman
devoted decades to mastering the delicate art of Central Javanese
pesinden singing. Finally, Javanese musicians hearing her recordings
without knowing the name of the performer assumed the singer was
Javanese. Nothing wrong stylistically, tonally, vocally, or
musically. Only when they listened closely to her pronunciation of
the ancient Kawi text did they realize that the singer was not Javanese.
By the same token, the outsider student of shakuhachi honkyoku needs
years of constant immersion to begin to hear the subtleties of
intonation (including subtle changes of the "same" pitch) of the great masters.
Karl
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