Music Perception & Cognition
A. Scriabin: Dramaturgy of Archetypes in Late Opuses of Piano Miniature Compositions
Abstract:
The fascinating figure of Alexander Scriabin, set across the border of two centuries, still holds some mysteries to this day. Within circles of Russian Mystic symbolists, he was hailed as a prophet. His life’s ambition was to create Mysterium, a music drama capable of transforming the consciousness of the human mind through an act of theurgy in which music is the primary source of communication – he wanted to create ‘divine’ harmonies to express the desire of the soul to break free from world reality and immerse itself in the creative urge, to ‘commence the journey back to the spirit’, and his synesthetic mind pushed the boundaries of the average human imagination.
Scriabin’s sensitivity to pitch was beyond that of the tempered piano and combined with his synesthetic perception, this led him to develop a new approach to principles of harmonic creation. His self-quotation of late opuses 71, 73, and 74 in the sketches for the Preparatory Act of Mysterium bring wonder to the function or concept of other late piano miniature compositions. System of Archetypes, visually and audibly recognizable gestures-symbols, allows to delve deeper into a mystical world of composer and bring a new evaluation of the Late Piano Miniatures and their concept in Scriabin’s creative oeuvre. Dissertation Title: Reception History and Archetypal Imagery of Late Piani Miniatures, Visualization of Musical Textures [PhD dissertation in Spanish/English] .
The 2nd International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society Granada, May 2016
The 2nd International Meeting of the Psychonomic Society was held in beautiful Granada in southern Spain, on May 5-8, 2016. Keynote speakers John Duncan (sponsored by SEPEX), Judith Kroll, Eleanor Maguire, and Eldar Shafir. The Society is collaborating with the Spanish Society for Experimental Psychology (SEPEX) and the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCOP), to ensure that the best of European and North American Experimental Psychology was on the show.
Fiona N. Newell, Trinity College Dublin was presenting ‘Here’s looking at you: The effect of facial motion and gaze shifts on judgments of attractiveness.’ Psychonomic Society has a membership of 3,145, (with over 747 or 23.8 % outside of North America) and publishes seven journals – Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, Cognitive & Affective Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognitive Research: Principles & Implications, Memory & Cognition, Learning & Behavior, and Behavior Research Methods and Instrumentation. It runs a registration-free (for members) annual meeting in the USA or Canada in November each year. Decision making: Eldar Shafir on scarcity.
International Conference Proceedings on the Multimodal Experience of Music (ICMEM),
The University of Sheffield, UK, March 2015
Abstract
Although much literature has been written on various aspects of the pedagogical art of piano technique, very little research has focused on a holistic approach to teaching which takes into account the child’s perception of, and response to, child-like imagery, in order to simplify the complex musical and technical challenges of piano playing. Recent scientific research has demonstrated that infants are born with multi-sensory perception, known as infants’ synesthesia. However, as their brains develop into adulthood, those senses become independent of one another and develop for specific functions e.g. vision and audition. It may be beneficial in music (and by extension, the arts) to cultivate the development of synesthetic perception for faster learning and creativity.
As part of the ICMEM Program (ICMEM 2015 Conference Proceedings), Poster session 1 and performance: Emotion, Neuroscience, Performance, New Technology, Personality, Dr. Rudenko introduced the paper, titled “Imagery in Piano Pedagogy: Visualisation of musical language in children’s cycle. Musical Toys, Sofia Gubaidulina”. Further information about Music Mind Machine in Sheffield Research Centre, Department of Music, The University of Sheffield, UK.
Neurodynamics of Language and Music Symposium,
12-13 June 2014, Helsinki, Finland
The symposium will introduce recent findings on neuroscience and the neural plasticity of language and music. The topics include music and language learning in different ages; bilingualism; music emotions in the brain; music in neurological rehabilitation; structural, functional, and genetic evidence on musical expertise; genetic background of dyslexia; language deficits and their amelioration with interventions. Read more about the paper submitted at the Symposium in Finland.
Royal Irish Academy of Music, Lecture Recital, March 2014
synaesthesia is a way to Creativity.
Imagery in Piano Pedagogy: Images of childhood in Gubaidulina’s Musical Toys - Presentation
“In the first instance, perhaps on a walk, I hear a huge, shapeless, multi-faceted sound, absolutely fascinating, with everything piled up together in a way you could never notate - something which exists outside time. It’s like a present, and I consider it a duty to transform it from vertical to horizontal” Sofia Gubaidulina.