Saturday, November 30, 2013

Music and the Brain > Listening to Music Could Help You Learn


Next time your dormie tells you to turn the music down, just reply 'it's helping me learn!' A study by the Stanford University School of Medicine found that listening to music can help the brain focus and organize information.

Listening - And Learning
For decades, researchers have been studying the link between learning and listening to music. The concept was introduced into the popular imagination in the early 1990s, when Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis coined the phrase 'the Mozart effect.' The term referred to Dr. Tomatis' finding that listening to Mozart could temporarily improve performance on certain spatial-temporal reasoning tasks, such as the Stanford-Binet IQ test. People quickly mis-translated the finding to 'listening to Mozart makes you smarter,' and a new industry was born: To this day there are all sorts of 'intelligence-boosting' products available that claim to harness the power of Mozart.
The link between music and learning isn't all hype, however. A 2009 study by Joseph M. Piro and Camilo Ortiz published in the Psychology of Music journal found that children who were exposed to music training performed better on vocabulary and reading comprehension tests than those who were not. The researchers hypothesized that studying music helped the children develop the mental coding systems necessary to learn language. Although they acknowledge that this is only a preliminary study - simply having different language instructors may have led to measurable differences in ability - the project is part of a growing body of research that suggests that music and learning are correlated.

Music Helps the Brain Focus
Enter the research team at the Stanford University School of Medicine. During a study designed to measure how the brain sorts out different events, they stumbled upon a concrete physiological link between the acts of listening to music and learning. The researchers played short symphonies by obscure 18th-century composers to subjects while scanning their brains with functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. The research group found that music 'lights up' areas of the brain involved with making predictions, paying attention and committing details to memory.
But don't switch on that stereo just yet - peak brain activity actually occurred between musical movements. Dr. Vinod Menon, the study's senior author, noted that 'In a concert setting, for example, different individuals listen to a piece of music with wandering attention, but at the transition point between movements, their attention is arrested.' In other words, you get the most brain activity just after, or between, intense musical movements.
'I'm not sure if the baroque composers would have thought of it in this way,' Menon added, 'but certainly from a modern neuroscience perspective, our study shows that this is a moment when individual brains respond in a tightly synchronized manner.'
So what does this mean for students? While Stanford hasn't published a 'learning with music' guide just yet, we think it probably can't hurt to incorporate some tunes into your studying routine. Just remember: Study during the interludes.






Thursday, November 28, 2013

Space-Time explained with a Music Box


Music has two recognizable dimensions — one is time, and the other is pitch-space. … There are a few things to notice about written music: Firstly, that it is not music — you can’t listen to this. … It’s not music — it’s music notation, and you can only interpret it into the beautiful music it represents.






Wednesday, November 27, 2013

3o Πανόραμα Ελληνικής Τζαζ στη Στέγη Γραμμάτων και Τεχνών


6-8 Δεκεμβρίου 2013
Και το 3ο Πανόραμα Ελληνικής Τζαζ επιμένει στην εξωστρέφεια: Οι δημιουργικές συγκλίσεις μεταξύ Ελλήνων και διεθνών τζαζιστών συνεχίζονται για τρίτη χρονιά στη Στέγη, με ένα εκλεκτικιστικό μείγμα ανατολικών και δυτικών επιρροών, οργανωμένων και αυτοσχεδιαστικών εκφράσεων, ακουστικών και ηλεκτρικών ήχων.

Το Πανόραμα Ελληνικής Τζαζ έχει το χαρακτηριστικό ότι ανοίγεται στη διεθνή σκηνή. Πώς αλλιώς θα μπορούσε να ήταν στη Στέγη; Στις δύο πρώτες διοργανώσεις επιλέξαμε να προκαλέσουμε τη συνεργασία μεταξύ καταξιωμένων Ελλήνων μουσικών και σημαντικών τζαζιστών από το εξωτερικό: Το 2011, στο 1ο Πανόραμα Ελληνικής Τζαζ,  τρία ελληνικά σχήματα συνομίλησαν με τρεις εξαιρετικούς μουσικούς από την ευρύτερη περιοχή της Μεσογείου, ενώ στο 2ο Πανόραμα Ελληνικής Τζαζ, το 2012, ο διάλογος ενέπλεξε Έλληνες και Σκανδιναβούς, με την τεράστια παράδοσή τους στην τζαζ. Στην τρίτη του χρονιά, το Πανόραμα κινείται εκλεκτικιστικά, παρουσιάζοντας ένα ευρύ φάσμα προσεγγίσεων από τον εγχώριο κόσμο της τζαζ και της αυτοσχεδιαζόμενης μουσικής και ένα εξίσου ποικίλο χαρακτήρα προσκεκλημένων σολίστ. Έτσι, βαλκανικοί ήχοι, σύγχρονοι απόηχοι του third stream και ελεύθερος αυτοσχεδιασμός δημιουργούν πράγματι ένα πανόραμα του τόσο πλούσιου σε ακούσματα κόσμου της τζαζ.



Το πρόγραμμα
6 Δεκεμβρίου 2013
Τakis Barberis Group feat. Ilhan Ersahin
21:00 Μικρή Σκηνή
Μία μοναδική εμπειρία μουσικής συνύπαρξης Ανατολής και Δύσης, παράδοσης και πρωτοπορίας, στο πλαίσιο των δημιουργικών συνεργασιών καταξιωμένων Ελλήνων μουσικών και σημαντικών τζαζίστων από το εξωτερικό. Και το 3o Πανόραμα Ελληνικής Τζαζ επιμένει στην εξωστρέφεια.

Ο Τάκης Μπαρμπέρης είναι μια από τις ξεχωριστές περιπτώσεις της ελληνικής τζαζ σκηνής, αφενός για την ιδιαίτερη δεξιοτεχνία του στην ηλεκτρική κιθάρα και αφετέρου για το μουσικό πλούτο και την ευρηματικότητα των συνθέσεών του. Το Takis Barberis Group παρουσιάζει παλαιότερες αλλά και νέες ακυκλοφόρητες συνθέσεις του Μπαρμπέρη, με πολλά στοιχεία από την τζαζ, τη φανκ, τη ροκ, την ινδική, τη βαλκανική και την ελληνική μουσική παράδοση. Η πλούσια δισκογραφία του, από τη δεκαετία του 1990 μέχρι σήμερα, τον έχει αναδείξει μεταξύ των κορυφαίων στην ανάμειξη Ανατολής και Δύσης, παράδοσης και πρωτοπορίας, φυσικού και ηλεκτρικού ήχου.

Ο Τουρκο-σουηδός σαξοφωνίστας, παραγωγός και συνθέτης Ιλάν Ερσαχίν έχει στο ενεργητικό του πολλές διεθνείς συνεργασίες και πρότζεκτ σε μεγάλα φεστιβάλ ανά τον κόσμο. Εγκατεστημένος στη Νέα Υόρκη, ίδρυσε το κλαμπ NuBlu στη θρυλική συνοικία East Village, το οποίο σύντομα έγινε σημείο αναφοράς καθώς από τη σκηνή του παρέλασαν διάσημοι μουσικοί, από τον Herbie Hancock μέχρι τον David Byrne, κι από τον Sun Ra μέχρι τον Tom Waits. Οι τζαζ κριτικοί μιλούν πλέον για τον «ήχο NuBlu» που είναι άκρως συνυφασμένος με το πολυπολιτισμικό στυλ του Ερσαχίν. Το τελευταίο του άλμπουμ, Istanbul Sessions, με τον Erik Truffaz, επιβεβαιώνει την άποψη αυτή με τον καλύτερο τρόπο.
Τάκης Μπαρμπέρης: κιθάρα
Μάνος Σαριδάκης: πλήκτρα
Γιώργος Γεωργιάδης: μπάσο
Γιώργος Πολυχρονάκος: τύμπανα
Ilhan Ersahin: σαξόφωνο

7 Δεκεμβρίου 2013
Sami Amiris Group featuring Rex Richardson
21:00 Μικρή Σκηνή
Ο Σάμι Αμίρης είναι από τους πλέον γνωστούς τζαζ πιανίστες στην Ελλάδα. Το παίξιμό του έχει έναν ιδιαίτερο χαρακτήρα, καθώς οι επιρροές του εντοπίζονται τόσο στην κλασική μουσική όσο και στην παράδοση της τζαζ και στην παραδοσιακή μουσική πολλών χωρών του κόσμου (μουσική από Ινδία, Αραβία, Λατινική Αμερική, Αφρική, Μαορί, Ελλάδα, Βαλκάνια), ενώ μεγάλο ενδιαφέρον έχει δείξει και για την αρχαιοελληνική μουσική.

Ο Καλιφορνέζος Ρεξ Ρίτσαρντσον είναι ένας διεθνούς φήμης cross-over βιρτουόζος τρομπετίστας και δεινός αυτοσχεδιαστής, που ισορροπεί ανάμεσα στην κλασική μουσική και στη σύγχρονη τζαζ. Επιδεικνύει μια εκθαμβωτική τεχνική, αλλά και μια αφθονία ιδεών στις συνθέσεις του. Στυλιστικά έχει τη δυνατότητα να κινείται άνετα ανάμεσα στο blues bebop και τις πιο περιπετειώδεις αρμονίες. Από το 1995 ηχογραφεί και ταξιδεύει ανά τον κόσμο με το φημισμένο Rhythm & Brass Ensemble και έχει συνεργαστεί με θρυλικά ονόματα, όπως ο Ray Charles και η Aretha Franklin.
 Σάμι Αμίρης: πιάνο
Αντώνης Λαδόπουλος: σαξόφωνο
Περικλής Τριβόλης: κοντραμπάσο
Σπύρος Παναγιωτόπουλος: ντραμς
Rex Richardson: τρομπέτα

8 Δεκεμβρίου 2013
Κώστας Θεοδώρου featuring Τοm Arthurs
21:00 Μικρή Σκηνή
Ο Κώστας Θεοδώρου είναι ένας ολοκληρωμένος μουσικός, με χαρακτηριστικό και ιδιαίτερα προσωπικό ύφος, για το οποίο ξεχωρίζει στη σημερινή ελληνική τζαζ σκηνή. Γέννημα-θρέμμα του βαλκανικού ήχου, της κλασικής τζαζ και των μουσικών του Κόσμου, έρχεται στο 3ο Πανόραμα με το Lost_Anthropology. Πρόκειται για την τελευταία του δουλειά με νύξεις σε πολιτισμικές ρίζες και αναφορές από αρχέγονα παγανιστικά δρώμενα έως τη σύγχρονη ποίηση. Είναι μια διαλεκτική προσέγγιση στο θέμα της ταυτότητας μέσα από αφηγηματικές μουσικές συνθέσεις σε συνδυασμό με ελεύθερο αυτοσχεδιασμό.

Ο Βρετανός τρομπετίστας και συνθέτης Τομ Άρθουρς είναι ένας εξαιρετικός εκπρόσωπος της σύγχρονης λονδρέζικης μουσικής σκηνής. Με επιρροές από την κλασική τζαζ αλλά και τις παραδοσιακές μουσικές της Κεντρικής Αφρικής, ο Άρθουρς έχει ήδη διαμορφώσει ένα προσωπικό ύφος, που το χαρακτηρίζουν η δεξιοτεχνία, η ρευστότητα και η ωριμότητα. Το τελευταίο άλμπουμ του, Postcards from Pushkin, το οποίο συνέθεσε μετά από ανάθεση του BBC και της Βασιλικής Φιλαρμονικής Ορχήστρας, χαρακτηρίζεται από μια «υπνωτιστική δριμύτητα και μια αυξανόμενη συναισθηματική ένταση», όπως έγραψε ο John Fordham στον Guardian και τον ενέταξε στην πρώτη γραμμή της νέας γενιάς της βρετανικής τζαζ σκηνής.
 Κώστας Θεοδώρου: κοντραμπάσο, κρουστά, κιθάρα, tapes
Αντώνης Ανισέγκος: πιάνο
Σταμάτης Πασόπουλος: μπαγιάν
Tom Arthurs: τρομπέτα






Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Drawing Apparatus

Drawing Apparatus challenges our notions of drawing, printmaking, and performance.  The drawings become documentation of the performance, reminding the viewer of the mechanisms and sounds of the apparatus at work.  Printmaking’s ability to create multiples of an image is also referenced in its ability to replicate the designs it creates.  Drawing Apparatus situates itself across disciplines and asks us to reconsider our own notions of performance, drawing and printmaking.








Jazzin NU Soul II

Saturday, November 23, 2013

The Scientific Power of Music

In the same way that a drug-induced dopamine surge leaves you craving more, music becomes addictive — the dopamine tells your body it was rewarded and creates a desire to seek out more.










Friday, November 22, 2013

Music and the mind


Nearly two decades after its original publication, Anthony Storr’s Music and the Mind remains an essential and timeless prism for looking at one of humanity’s greatest treasures. From the biological basis of cognition to a thoughtful analysis of the views held by history’s greatest philosophers to the evolution of the Western tonal system, Storr addresses some of the most fundamental questions about music, like why a minor scale always sounds sad and a major scale happy, and offers an evidence-backed yet comfortingly human grand theory for the very purpose of music: Peace, resolution and serenity of spirit.







How Music Works > Episode 4 - Bass


Series 1 Summary
We all respond to music - whether clicking our fingers, humming along or dancing - there's something out there for everyone. In this series Goodall looks at melody, rhythm, harmony and bass to establish how music is made and how it comes to reflect different cultures.
Setting out on a journey that spans the globe and moves through the centuries, Goodall uncovers the elements that are shared by all styles of music. Following a trail of diverse musical talents from Mahler to David Bowie; the blues to Bulgarian folk songs; medieval choral music to disco; he reveals the tried and tested tricks of the composer's trade.

Episode 4 - Bass
Music is usually broken down into melody, rhythm and harmony. But what about the very lowest notes in music, that can have an impact on all three? In this film Howard looks at the abiding fascination musicians and composers have had with the bass.
For half a millennium instrument makers have been trying to construct instruments of all shapes and sizes capable of thudding, sonorous low notes. Only with the arrival of the synthesizer did they succeed in producing a rival to the mighty organ. With disco, dance, and drum 'n' bass, the bass has arrived centre stage.
But bass notes have another, crucial role. Far from just plodding away in the background, bass lines can have a critical effect on the whole structure of a piece of music, helping to drive the chord progressions.
Howard looks at the dark horse of the musical family, and its use in the hands of such diverse musical talents as Johann (and Richard) Strauss, John Philip Sousa, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Albinoni, Bach and Motown's resident bass maestro, James Jamerson.




















Thursday, November 21, 2013

Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington > Duke Ellington’s Diet

What the celebrated composer’s relationship with food reveals about the inner conflicts we share.

This is a culture where our relationship with food, though sometimes a canvas for creativity, has mutated from a source of sustenance to a grand arena for our moral struggles with willpower, a tyranny of habits we seek to rewire, a currency of status in the world’s hierarchy of haves and have-nots. At its most tragic, it can rip the psyche apart under the conflicting, unrelenting impulses for indulgence and control. While for most of us, these daily dramas play out in private, for public figures they offer source material for that sad excuse for journalism we find at the newsstand and the supermarket checkout aisle. And yet something about it — about those shared demons of our ambivalent relationship with food as a metaphor and voodoo doll for our inner contradictions and oscillations between self-loathing and self-pleasuring, between quenching and control — holds immutable allure for even those furthest removed from tabloid culture.

Perhaps it is the confluence of these curious cultural phenomena that makes for one of the most interesting parts of Terry Teachout’s fantastic new biography, Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington  — Ellington’s relationship with food


"Duke, who is always worrying about keeping his weight down, may announce that he intends to have nothing but Shredded Wheat and black tea. . . . Duke’s resolution about not overeating frequently collapses at this point. When it does, he orders a steak, and after finishing it he engages in another moral struggle for about five minutes. Then he really begins to eat. He has another steak, smothered in onions, a double portion of fried potatoes, a salad, a bowl of sliced tomatoes, a giant lobster and melted butter, coffee, and an Ellington dessert — perhaps a combination of pie, cake, ice cream, custard, pastry, jello, fruit, and cheese. His appetite really whetted, he may order ham and eggs, a half-dozen pancakes, waffles and syrup, and some hot biscuits. Then, determined to get back on his diet, he will finish, as he began, with Shredded Wheat and black tea."








How Music Works

How Music Works > Episode 3 - Harmony


Series 1 Summary
We all respond to music - whether clicking our fingers, humming along or dancing - there's something out there for everyone. In this series Goodall looks at melody, rhythm, harmony and bass to establish how music is made and how it comes to reflect different cultures.
Setting out on a journey that spans the globe and moves through the centuries, Goodall uncovers the elements that are shared by all styles of music. Following a trail of diverse musical talents from Mahler to David Bowie; the blues to Bulgarian folk songs; medieval choral music to disco; he reveals the tried and tested tricks of the composer's trade.

Episode 3 - Harmony
In the late middle ages western harmony started on a journey that would take it in a completely separate direction to that of the music of other parts of the world. It discovered chords, and, over the next seven centuries, began to unlock their harmonic possibilities. In this film Howard looks at how western harmony works, and how, in the present day, it has fused with other forms of music to create new styles.
Chords led to chord progressions, and Howard looks at how familiar patterns of chord progressions give all kinds of music - from classical to popular - their sense of forward movement. Why do the same chord patterns appear again and again, from Renaissance Italy to the latest chart hit?

Musicians have always liked to tamper with the basic chords, and experiment with dissonance. We see how these tricks of the trade actually work, and the emotional and musical effect they have. From the folk musicians of the middle ages to Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner, from Chuck Berry to David Bowie, Hendrix to Coldplay, the same harmonic techniques surface again and again.






















Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Music, the brain and ecstasy


If the human voice is the greatest instrument, as the widespread music teacher preaching goes, then the brain is the greatest composer. Every time we perform, compose or merely listen to music, the brain plays high-level Tetris with a range of devices, harmonies and patterns, creating emotional meaning out of the elements of sound and often extracting intense pleasure. In Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination, composer Robert Jourdain examines music’s unusual emotive power through little-known facts and physiological phenomena and historical anecdotes. Perhaps most fascinatingly, he pins down the origin of pleasure in music as a consequence of a series of tonal deviations that create a conflict in the brain, resolved with a return to the tonal center, which gives us a sensation of bliss. This sequence of conflict and resolution, he explains, can come from the four key elements of music: rhythm, melody. phrase, and harmony. “Ecstasy” is the result of a resolution that comes once a conflict has reached the limit of the listener’s comprehension ability in tonal space-time.








How Music Works > Episode 2 - Rhythm


Series 1 Summary
We all respond to music - whether clicking our fingers, humming along or dancing - there's something out there for everyone. In this series Goodall looks at melody, rhythm, harmony and bass to establish how music is made and how it comes to reflect different cultures.
Setting out on a journey that spans the globe and moves through the centuries, Goodall uncovers the elements that are shared by all styles of music. Following a trail of diverse musical talents from Mahler to David Bowie; the blues to Bulgarian folk songs; medieval choral music to disco; he reveals the tried and tested tricks of the composer's trade.

Episode 2 - Rhythm
From the moment our hearts start beating, rhythm is integral to us all. From walking to dancing, from clicking our fingers to tapping our toes, we are all programmed to respond to rhythm. In this film Howard looks at the common rhythmic patterns that have been used by musicians from all cultures, from Brahms to rappers, from the founders of Cuban son to Philip Glass, from Stevie Wonder to Fats Waller.
Why do some rhythms make us want to dance, while others make us feel tranquil? How does rhythm 'work' when there is no obvious pulse, as in much classical music? What links African drumming to J S Bach? Why do virtually all popular singers sing ahead of the beat?
And how is it that a tiny Caribbean island has produced a rhythm that dominates popular music the world over?