New theory of a musical work inspired by cognitive psychology
1) Alicja Jarzębska, Institute of Musicology, The Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland
ajarzeb@orfeo.hist.uj.edu.pl
2) Edward Nęcka, Institute of Psychology, The Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland
ednecka@apple.phils.uj.edu.pl
Desired mode of presentation
Talk
Background in music theory
The essential question that preoccupies the musician - as wrote Stravinsky in his Poetics of
Music - is the pursuit of the One out of the Many. But there are two ideas of „unity out diversity”
in music theory. The first one is associated with ancient idea of beauty (as empirical effect of
Harmony connected with proportion and symmetry), and the second one - with modern idea of
reduction Many (various) empirical effects to abstract One named Grundgestalt,
Substanztgemeinschaft, Ursatz, prime set, octatonic collection, and so on (Brown & Dempster,
1989, 1990; Jarzębska, 2002). Discussion on the post-tonal music (e.g. Stravinsky's music) is
founded on pitch-class theory and Schenkerian analysis, so is connected to this modern idea of
„unity out diversity”. But these theoretical conceptions were not accepted by such composer as
Stravinsky. In conversation with R. Craft he said, that theory of music „doesn't exist. [..] Or, if
this isn't quite true, it has a by-product existence that is powerless to create or even to justify.
Nevertheless, composition involves a deep intuition of theory”.
Background in cognitive psychology
The proposed theory of musical work accept such arguments from cognitive psychology as:
poverty of stimulus argument, cognitive economy, schematizing, regressing to a canonical form.
We used the results of research in cognitive psychology (e.g. three types of perceptual invariance
proposed in the comparative psychology of music: perceptual invariance in pitch structure,
perceptual invariance in time structure, perceptual invariance for timbre).
Aims
We aim to propose a new theory of post-tonal musical work inspired by cognitive psychology.
This new approach to Stravinsky's music puts stress on (1) a stability of his creative personality
(e.g. he used the same unique method of composition for almost 60 years), (2) the cohesion
between his view of music and the way he constructed his works.
Main contribution
In this paper there is a proposition of cognitive approach to music analysis and the cognitive
model of Stravinsky's music. There is proposed a new term „parton” (from the Latin: pars-partis)
for the empirical effect of the block-sound unit as the basic unit of musical construction. The
authors discusses three types of such block-sound units (partons): the first, a parton with a stable
timbre (determined first of all by instrumentation, articulation, register, and types of pitch
motion), the second, a parton with a stable rhythmic pattern and the third, a parton with a stable
interval pattern. These stable timbre, stable rhythmic or interval pattern correspond to the
cognitive schemata and perceptual invariances in the psychology of music. On the higher level of
musical construction there are hiper-partons and super-partons. Two types of montage of
recurrence partons are characterized: the first as a successive, intermittent „musical discourse”,
and the second as a simultaneous „musical discourse” (a new type of ars contrapuncti).
Implications
The cognitive model of Stravinsky's music is a proposition of a new theory of post-tonal music
and takes about account the timbre of various sound-blocks units (determined first of all by
instrumentation, articulation, register and types of pitch motion) and changes in duration and in
metric accentuation of the repeated sound-blocks units (partons).
References,
Mattew Brown, Douglas Dempster, The Scientific Image of Music Theory, „Journal of Music
theory” 1989 nr 1, s. 65-106.
Douglas Dempster, Mattew Brown, Evaluating Musical Analyses and Theories: Five
Perspectives, „Journal of music Theory” 1990 nr 2, s. 247-79.
Alicja Jarzębska, Z dziejów myśli o muzyce (History of Music Theory), Musica Iagellonica,
Cracow 2002.
Alicja Jarzębska, Strawiński. Myśli i muzyka (Stravinsky. Thoughts and Music), Musica
Iagellonica, Cracow 2002.
Stewert H. Hulse, Annie H. Takeuchi, Richard F. Braaten, Perceptual Invariances in the
Comparative Psychology of Music, „Music Perception”,1992 nr 2, s. 151-184.
John A. Sloboda, The Musical Mind. Cognitive Psychology of Music, Oxford 1985.
I. Deliège, J.A. Sloboda (eds.), Perception and Cognition of Music, Hove, East Sussex, UK:
Psychology Press, 1997.
Biographies
name
Alicja Jarzębska
current position
professor of musicology, The Jagiellonian University, Cracow
main field of research analysis of musical work, history of music theory, aesthetics and
history of 19th- and 20th-century music
relevant qualifications Ph.D. (musicology), The Jagiellonian University, Cracow 1986
M.A. (theory of music ), Academy of Music, Cracow,
book publications
author of
1. The Ideas of Serial Music (Musica Iagellonica: Cracow, 1985; in
Polish)
2. History of Music Theory (Musica Iagellonica: Cracow, 2002; in
Polish)
3. Stravinsky. Thoughts and Music (Music Iagellonica:Cracow, 2002)
4. The Debate in the Beauty in Music. Introduction to the 20 th-century
Musical Culture, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, in
press).
members of editorial Studies in Penderecki, Research Series (Princeton, USA)
boards
name
current position
main field of research
relevant qualifications
book publications
members of editorial
boards
Edward Nęcka
professor of psychology, the Jagiellonian University, Cracow
cognitive psychology; psychology of creativity; human intelligence
Ph.D psychology, the Jagiellonian University, 1981
MA psychology, the Jagiellonian University, 1977
Intelligence: Genesis, Structure, Functions (Gdańsk:GWP, 2003)
Psychology of creativity (Gdańsk: GWP, 2001)
Formal Theory of Intelligence (Universitas: Cracow, 2000)
Studia Psychologiczne