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"Mozart Effect" Has A Molecular Basis
pingbak writes "The 'Mozart effect,' where students were observed performing better after being exposed to a Mozart sonata, appears to have a basis in reality. According to New Scientist, two researchers have found the underlying biomechanics in mice stimulated by the effect. They don't know the details why Mozart's sonatas really cause this effect, but they know where to look. Guess I'm going to have to switch Shoutcast streams now..."
(Boy, am I opening myself up with this one!)
P.S. 1st post.
~~~
Just the opposite. They seem to have found some end results of this process in some gene expression. How the hell listening to Mozart could cause this has yet to be explained.
People who listen to Mozart score better on their exams than those who listen to Britney Spears. I'm sure this is all about some kind of mysterious electromagnetic interaction with synapse electric fields and not about better taste being highly correlated with higher intelligence. When those rats start quoting Shakespeare, get back to me.
This sort of phenomenon has to be triggered by something _other_ than Mozart. Like the pitch or frequency or some voodoo like that. But not because Mozart wrote it. I'm sure the same thing works with lots of classical music.
I'd much rather see a Honda Wigger blasting Mozart in his car, than the wretched "Niggas N Hoes" shake-fest. If it has any positive effect on his intelligence that's a much needed bonus.
But I think these research efforts would be better invested towards designing rap music that kills its listener.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
That would be a violation of the first law of car stereo dynamics: The price of the car stereo system is inversely proportional to the quality of music that it plays.
(On a side note, I'm curious if there's a way to create some sort of HERF gun that reliably disables subwoofers but nothing else. Is this even theoretically possible?)
Maybe it has something to do with overly compressing music, as seems to be the case on 98% of modern records. In classical recordings the music has it's ups and downs volume-wise, on modern recordings the volume is almost flat. Maybe our brains get the energy for listening to progressing sounds of pitch, rhytmical qualities and volume? I trust that these scientists tested on music that is not loop-based, but progressive.. but did they test on a record that is not overly compressed?
I've written some of my best Perl after a couple of Sam Adamses. I know it's great Perl because I can't read it afterwards, and it doesn't work.
Here is how you get that to work:
... ...
1. Buy up 1st tier suppliers for radio mfgs.
2. Implement "secret" feature to disable these with a simple RF frz.
2.5
3. Wait 5 years.
4. Enjoy the ability to disable almost anyone's car radio and equipment.
5.
6. Build a device that disables your disabling system. Sell to youngsters.
7. PROFIT!
8. See secret item 2.5 where you built in a second disabling device.
9. Enjoy your power.
UID 1000000 is just around the corner.
That's all well and good, but regardless, can someone at least give the name of the sonatas in question ? Even if the report is to be believed, (and heck, if one reads the linked article, it makes sense, especially the part about mouse toys) there are a lot of compositions by Mozart ... to say they do better than other music in general, is, in and of itself, too vague and unscientific. I'd like titles, please ?
And while we're at it, shouldn't we examine what makes them so powerful ? We certainly have no shortage of great minds: every University and College *I know of* has an incredibly grueling music theory degree, and after taking a simple piano appreciation class, this CS student knows better than to take any more music courses regarding song analysis!
PS - (I'm actually *shocked* no one has said it yet, but... this story reminds me of Neal Stephen's book, Snowcrash !)
--I gots 99 problems but a new machine ain't one!
AMD! Asus! Whoot! 6 years!
Yeah, yeah, yeah; but is there some other way to do it. A pill perhaps?
Jonathan B.
As a composer and an on-going student of music (you never really stop learning), I feel I should comment on this.
Mozart's music may be extremely structured, but it was also innovative because of it's lack of structure. If you listen closely, you can see that Mozart would write out "improvised" sections, as his best asset was his ability to improvise just about anything. Calling a simple chord progression structure is like saying, "This pile of mud is a house."
A lot of new music, and I don't mean anything you can find on the radio, is highly structured. Minimalists, such as Philip Glass and Steve Reich, build their music off of a few (or many) simple rhythmic/melodic elements that are repeated.
In all honesty, there may not be any logical explanation. Have they tried other recordings of this piece? Or just one? What about some of his other piano sonatas? Or maybe Beethoven's Piano Sonata in Cminor (which was based, nearly measure by measure on Mozart's Piano Sonata in Cminor)? What about Bach? Or Haydn?
Before they can make any real conclusions, I think they have a metric butt-ton of research to do.
Actually, Beethoven was deaf, not Mozart.
This statement is misinformed.
While Mozart was born in the same year that Bach died, there was no stylistic relationship between them. It wasn't until much later in his life that Mozart even discovered the works of Bach. Even in his day, Bach was considered old fashioned, and was very much "out of style".
While Bach looked back to the old contrapunctal methods of structuring a piece of music, Mozart (and his contemporaries) were involved with largely homophonic music written in the Sonata form. In terms of texture, music from the classical common practice (including Mozart) consists of a melodic subject, and an accompaniment, whereas textures in Bach's music relies heavily on imitative counterpoint.
My thinking has always been that if the "Mozart effect" actually has any basis, it's in the structure of the melodic phrasing: antecedent consequent.
In classical common practice, melodic phrasing usually followed the convention of an Antecedant phrase (often moving harmonically from the region of tonic to dominant), followed by a Consequent phrase (often harmonically moving from dominant to tonic). This creates a very strong sence of symmetry. To pick a tune probably everyone here is familiar with, think of the opening phrases (or any other for that matter) from Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
It is this powerful effect of aural symmetry that I suspect has the most profound effect on our minds. It also typifies classicism in every sence: reason, order, symmetry.
BTW, I really find no basis for the all-too-common assertion of the link between mathematics and music. Composers (excepting people like Stockhausen perhaps) do not conceptualize music in mathematical terms. There is a relationship in that both music and mathematics have a symbolic notation, and that one can describe anything using mathematics, but that's about it.
All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself. - Johann Sebastian Bach
I'm reading so many comments about the way listening to Mozart may affect genetic expression or the firing of neurons, etc., and it's seems fairly obvious that the spiritual side is being left out of this discussion. For those who don't believe in Creation, there is still the classical definition of the soul of man (gender inclusive) - see Aristotle.
The point to be taken is that the physical and spiritual are tightly integrated in human being, such that an influence on one necessarily affects the other. Styles or categories of music affect us differently. It's universally recognized that some music relaxes us, while another type gets us pumped up. Given this, it seems hyper-logical to me, to the extent that it's really boggling that we even question it's validity.
The only explanation I can think of is that maybe we don't want to admit that we have tastes that don't contribute to our fullest potential, and that recognizing such would imply some responsibility to reassess our listening habits?
On a related vein of thought, there is the argument that there is an objectiveness to beauty, and the beauty has degrees. Assuming it to be true, this certainly is related to the above.
"The qualities of measure and proportion invariably constitute beauty and excellence."
Plato (Philebus).
It's true, Baroque music is indeed more mathematical than later, especially romantic, music. Although, my pianist flatmate says that strictly speaking, Mozart is known as a 'Classical' composer rather than as a Baroque one... JSB is Baroque. Unfortunately I get confused very easily between using terms like Baroque to describe a composer's style and using them to describe the period they were around in!
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
-- Terry Pratchett, Hogfather