Musical Beliefs: Psychoacoustic, Mythical, and Educational Perspectives
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.53 (714 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0807730084 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 0000-00-00 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Contrary to popular belief among musicians and the general public, the basis of Western music and acoustics is not scientific, but superstitious. Pythagorean mathematics as it relates to harmonics does not work, a fact that mathematicians and scientists have known for years and this has important implications, for it means that Western musical aesthetics and educational programmes in music are not rooted in the laws of physics, as is often maintained, but in a belief system that is an arbitrary product of human imagination. The author describes this belief system and traces its evolution from its Greek and Roman origins up to the present day and then provides a number of cross-cultural comparisons that illuminate the role of beliefs in musical behaviour. In this book, the author argues that what constitutes "music" in various societies is cultur
D.D. said Buyer beware. This book has an interesting premise, to examine the effects of social context on musical style. BUTwhen the author, in the process of making comparisons between visual art styles and musical art styles, writes about "the mobiles" of Jackson Pollock, the reader must doubt the scholarship of the entire endeavor. (Hello! Alexander Calder made mobiles, Jackson Pollock pioneered action painting. What next, Beethoven played bluegrass?) Surely this wasn't intended to be educational.