I was really interested by Tuesday’s talk and about how the brain and music interconnect. It is fascinating to me that two seemingly completely different things are in fact directly related to each other. For instance, if our brain does not appreciate a certain type of music, we in turn do not like that music and will not want to listen to it anymore. In fact, as we saw in the documentary, sometimes our brain is able to identify a certain type of music that we like more, even when we ourselves cannot. I wonder whether if it really is such a knee-jerk kind of reaction or if there is more to it. Meaning, the subject in the video was able to identify which song played to him was Bach and which was Mozart only for the first two songs played, while during the second time he was not able to identify the correct composes. However, his brain was still able to differentiate between the two. Therefore, if it really is such a knee-jerk type of reaction, shouldn’t he have been able to differentiate both times? In addition, if a person is “a-musical”, does that mean that his brain does not react to the music at all or that his brain reacts in a negative way? Moreover, does this person’s brain not recognize the music or does he just not like it?
Another thing that came up in the lecture that was really interesting to me was the concept of “synesthesia”. As was mentioned in class, when people listen to different types of music, they get different images/colors in their head. Therefore, I wonder whether a painter who is listening to music that he generally envisions as “blue”, would use a blue palette for his drawing or would it not translate into his art? In addition, would this subconscious also affect the type of drawing someone would like. For instance, if someone generally appreciates beat and fast music, would he also be more interested and value art that for him expresses these concepts? In general, how much does what comes through our senses affect what we ourselves create in art?