Re: GG: Lacrimosa: Physiology and the Arts...

[Manuel Martinez <Manuel.Martinez@Schwab.COM>]

>Kristen, as you pointed out, part of our rapture with music (or films or
>plays, for that matter) is knowing full well what will happen next.
>Actually, I think we pretend we don't know what will happen next, then
>brace for it, and finally luxuriate in its bliss.


You raise interesting issues enough for months of discussion if I had 
the time. But along with other recent emails, I'm glad you did. 

Ray Jackendoff, a Linguistics professor at Brandeis University, in his 
essay "Musical Parsing and Musical Affect," offers a very fascinating
explanation to this issue of "knowing and not knowing" when listening.
In his model, he described how the brain listens to music. On the 
conscious level, the mind is already familiar with the form and structure 
of the music. It has memorized the music and anticipates its many magical
moments. But to complete the perception, the music is also received by 
the parser. Now, this is the interesting part: the parser never remembers.
What it hears, it hears for the first time. This explains why familiarity
in music (or any art form for that matter), for the most part, does not 
breed contempt.