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Music, Culture and Ideas
音樂, 文化與觀念
Beethoven’s Anvil
William Benzon

Music in Mind and Culture
 William L. Benzon: 認知科學家, 社會與演化系統
期刊 The Journal of Social and Evolutionary
Systems）之編輯委員, 並著有 視覺化: 二次電腦
革命 Visualizations: The Second Computer
Revolution, 也是音樂團體「歐亞非聯盟」
（AfroEurasian Connection）創始人之一。
The Evolution of Musical Culture

直立人適應草原 製造石器 建造shelter
– 原始人模仿動物的叫聲
– One of the adaptation that followed erectus to
survive in the steppes.
– Control over the vocal apparatus
– Precursor to music
– 2 million years ago
The Evolution of Musical Culture

舌下神經導管約30萬年前發展到目前尺
寸
– 原始人模仿動物的叫聲 (以便影響動物)
– One of the adaptation that followed erectus to
survive in the steppes.
– Control over the vocal apparatus
– Precursor to music
– 2 million years ago

人類先祖透過模仿動物叫聲獲得自主控
制發聲器官的能力(在發展原始語言之前)
The Evolution of Musical Culture

March to music:
– Rhythmically coordinated group merge from
vocal mimicry and associated activities.
– The differentiation of language from
musicking

Three milestone: from ape to human
– Vocal mimicry
– The origins of musicking
– The differentiation of language from
musicking
The Evolution of Musical Culture

Gestalt Switch 1: sacred pleasure
 Oubre’s hypothesis:
– The human mind first emerged when
musicking gave rise the group-synchronized
neurodynamics. Such states are both a byproduct and a catalyst of the continuing
evolution of hominid consciousness and
culture.
– Music proper and language were proceeded by
something that neither one nor the other but
partakes of both
The Evolution of Musical Culture

Gestalt Switch 2: music and language
differentiate
 Thinking:
– on-line: brain is attending to the external
world and directed to it;
– off-line: brain is focusing on matters that are
not physically present
– Musicking: on-line
– Language: off-line
The Evolution of Musical Culture

Vocalization become a trigger that evoke
the others
 On-line voluntary vocalizations are used to
reference and manipulate off-line nonvocal
mental structure. Won-won
 Conversation:
– Assemble meaning
– decode
音樂的四個時期.音樂與文明

Consciousness 起源於Homer與Athenian
Golden Age之間
– Mental terms were scarce
– Hardly attribute to the mind
– Oedipus the King would not have been possible
in Homer’s time
– Take place in mental realm. About mental
events, acts knowing or denial.
音樂與文明

New modes of consciousness
– 兒童觀念發展: 後階段的心理機制將早期的
物體化 objectified

“thumos” in Iliad
– 反應環境的內在感應
– Thumos 給戰士力量
– 心理物質的容器: 精力
– 古典希臘思想家將mind概念化
– 物體化 objectified the MIND
悲劇的誕生
悲劇: the whole social system become objectified and
available for your contemplating
 悲劇來自以往的儀式, but how?
 Dionysian Cult (Apollonian art (dream) of sculpture;
Dionysian art (intoxication) of music)

– Frame: Dionysian chorus (reveling throng)
– Scenes: Apollonian action (principal celebrants); vision; dream
– 透過與酒神似的合唱團的認同 觀眾接受他所見的vision

A sweeping opposition of styles:
– Dionysian lyrics of the chorus VS the Apollonian dream world
音樂時期與文化等級

Wiora: 音樂的4個時期:
– 史前及早期
– 古文明時期from the Sumerian and Egyptian to
the late Roman, high culture in the Orient
– 西方音樂藝術時期
– 科技與工業時期
– 前3時期 intrinsically musical emphasis: 依序
為 節奏 旋律 和聲
音樂時期與文化等級

Wiora: 音樂的前3個時期:
–
Age 時期 VS Rank等級
1. Towards rhythmic elaboration
2. Strongly 區別 the control of melody from
control of rhythm.
3. Harmony is “in
–
turn” 區別 from both
rhythm and melody
Intrinsic
音樂時期與文化等級

Basic experience of music is holistic or
Gestalt in nature
–
–
–

幼童表達方式
–
–

I got Rhythm
Thriving for a Riff
Anthropology
一字代表一整句
簡短話語表達完整的情境
Functional channel 功能通道
音樂時期Age與文化等級Rank


Age of music VS culture rank
culture rank:
–
–
–
number of functional channels required to
realize the music.
Culture molds the brain, not biology
Beethoven Piano sonata VS 非洲打擊樂
音樂時期與文化等級


旋律與和聲的出現
區別 the control of melody from control
of rhythm, what does it mean?
–

Musical motifs: elementary gesture stream,
are no longer manipulated and elaborated
simply as a rhythmic gestalt.
Indian music:
–
–
Raga
tala
音樂時期與文化等級






和聲的出現
Harmonic elaboration (rank 3) : postRenaissance Europe: simultaneous
sounding of two or more sound
Renaissance: polyphonic: two or more
simultaneously melodic lines
Three-note chords
Zarlino (1558): horizontal
Rameau (1772): vertical triads
音樂時期與文化等級


Modulation from one key to another
From Baroque to late 19th century
音樂時期與文化等級
音樂的演化

–

Darwin evolution model:
–
–


Why???
變化的來源 (基因的作用)
選擇保留的機制 (interaction between phenotype
with the external world, survival of the fittest)
文化上: meme
Performance-level attractor play the
phenotype role; The fate of memes depends
on whether they contribute to repeated
performances
音樂時期與文化等級

Evolution from HG band to chiefdom
–
經過長期的發展

–
–
–
–
–
–
–

Musicking 扮演著何種角色
Close ritual, loose mundane
GO (一般化的他人)
Chief (首領)
Musicking organize Ritual ------time coupled brain
GO + chiefhood
Nuer
Ritual creates a cultural space where social
innovation takes place
音樂時期與文化等級

Where memetic variation comes from?
–
–
–

From other groups
In the course of musicking
Individual invention
Whatever the source, as long as a group
has a plentiful supply of memes it has the
raw material for cultural evolution.
音樂時期與文化等級

Music and Literacy
–
–

Rank 2 music occurs in civilization with a
small elite capable of writing
Elaborate solo singers are members of literate
societies singing rank 2 music
The process need to maintain an
imaginary other while writing and reading
is similar to GO or chiefhood.
音樂史

從素歌到原始主義 The Gregorian
contract and the Primitive