 |
 |
I particularly enjoy reading Oliver Sacks, and it seems that this book will stand among the good ones. What I will also want to read is: *Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood*. If you read *A leg to stand on*you will notice how close the Author is to music. *Awakenings*, later made into a movie that randomly respects the writing, is an interesting excursus into the world of medicine made comprehensible to the common reader. A great writer. On Dec 31, 2007 11:09 PM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > From a footnote [p.242]in Oliver Sacks's new book, Musicophilia... > > 'What makes the music of Sir Edward Elgar sound so distinctively English?' > they [Iversen, Patel and Ohgushi of the Neurosciences Institute] ask. > 'What > makes the music of Debussy sound so French?' > > Patel et al. compared rhythm and melody in British English speech and > music > to that of French speech and music, using the music of a dozen different > composers. They found, by plotting rhythm and melody together, that 'a > striking pattern emerges, suggesting that a nation's language exerts a > "gravitational pull" on the structure of its music.' > > The Czech composer Leos Janacek, too, was greatly exercised by the > resemblances between speech and music, and he spent more than thirty years > sitting in cafes and other public places, notating the melodies and > rhythms > of people's speech, convinced that these unconsciously mirrored their > emotional intent and states of mind. He attempted to incorporate these > speech rhythms into his own music - or, rather, to find 'equivalents' for > them in the classical music grid of pitches and intervals. Many people, > whether or not they speak Czech, have felt that there is an uncanny > correspondence between Janacek's music and the sound patterns of Czech > speech. > > Sacks's bibliography is packed with research journal items, but I note > this: > > Patel, Aniruddh D. 2008. Music, Language and the Brain. New York: Oxford > University Press. > > In other words, forthcoming... >