In Sweet Anticipation, David Huron suggests that the way in which the brain processes musical information affects how music is retained in memory and how it associates with other material, and adds ―music-related representations exist as real biological patterns in individual brains. They aren't just formal abstractions.‖34 Huron refers to the magnetic resonance imaging work of Petr Janata and colleagues replicating the toroidal three-dimensional model of Western music's tonality relationships first proposed in 1982 by Krumhansl and Kessler.35 Huron emphasizes that these torus-like topographies forming in the rostromedial prefrontal cortex pertain specifically to Western music's tonality system and, although the toroidal pitch-class structure remains similar, it varies in its organization from listener to listener. The uniqueness of these toroidal structures incites Huron to claim that they ―provide direct evidence of neurological adaptations to a particular musical environment.‖36 Huron likens these adaptations to house floor plans where each house has the same rooms but different layouts. From this, Huron infers, ―These differences imply a unique learning path for each listener─consistent with the theory of neural Darwinism.‖37
Acknowledging that auditory experiences (such as those in music) depend on learning through exposure, it is fundamental to understand the underlying mechanisms involved in committing information to memory. As the following remark renders, Huron contends that the main function of memory is "preparation" not "recall":
34 Huron, Sweet Anticipation, 128.
35See Huron, Sweet Anticipation, 128-9. Examples of Janata's dynamic imaging results can be viewed at:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2002/dec/121202.html (accessed 2017-05-02).
36 Huron, Sweet Anticipation, 128.
37 Ibid., 129.
144 Memory of past events is biologically useful only to the extent that these memories inform future actions. Memory exists not to allow us to relish past successes or regret past failures, but to allow us to repeat our successes and avoid future failures.38
As a general comment on preparation, expected style and even anticipated significance of a work can alter its reception. Meyer notes, ―the attention given to a work of art is a direct product of the belief in the significance and vitality of aesthetic experience.‖39 Meyer even ties in journalistic criticism and marketing in the grasp of expectations.40
Bregman uses the terms ―schema-based segregation and integration‖ as well as
―schema-based organization‖41 to describe the perceptual proclivities tied to learning and expectation. Huron's terminology refines the kind of expectation according to the type of memory.42 Although there are many sub-categories for short- and long-term memory, we focus mainly on the three most linked to expectation: episodic, semantic and short-term.
These types of memory and associated expectations are shown in the following Table 6.1.
38 Huron, Sweet Anticipation, 219.
39 Meyer, Emotion and Meaning in Music, 74.
40 Ibid., 76.
41 See Bregman, Auditory Scene Analysis, 395-453 . 42 See Huron, Sweet Anticipation, 220.
145 Table 6.1 ─ Types of Memory and Associated Expectation
Type of Memory Description Type of
Expectation Description of Expectation
Episodic memory consists of the autobiographical recounting of events; i.e., personal tale-telling. It pertains to how events relate directly to oneself and are easily distorted at each recollection.43 Unlike personal recounting of tales, music recall retains much of its accuracy, and this reliability increases with exposure to the same work. This is described by Huron in the following passage:
Memories for well-known pieces resemble episodic memories that have been recalled many times. After a while, they can become episodic memories that are no longer tethered to a specific past moment. . . . [But] our memories for familiar musical works are episodic memories that have lost most of their autobiographical history, while retaining their accuracy or fidelity. With sufficient exposure, a listener can become highly familiar with any given musical work.44
43 See Huron, Sweet Anticipation, 221.
44 Ibid., 222.
146 While individual music works get stored in episodic memory, exposure to various works involves semantic memory, where information on genre and style accumulates. In turn, short-term memory serves to retain immediate musical occurrences. Episodic memory yields veridical expectations45 as to development of a specific (i.e., known) work; semantic memory governs schematic expectations stemming from acculturation to a given style;46 and expectations arising from the immediate presentation of successive musical material are termed dynamic expectations.
Huron's Sweet Anticipation contains findings gathered from extensive research, old and new, obtained when evaluating listener expectations and comparing against frequency of occurrence of various musical parameters. Some of these statistical findings are culture-specific or style-culture-specific yet others appear to emerge across various types of music. Select research observations appear in the attached appendices but, considering that examples may aid our discussion, a few follow in the section below.
Of importance, schema-based experiential learning may be impeded if critical windows of childhood pliability are missed. This is identified by Huron47 but also by Annabel J. Cohen in her ―Music cognition: defining constraints on musical communication.‖ Cohen reveals that ―greater adult literacy of musical styles will follow from greater exposure early in life.‖48 Oliver Sacks also notes the importance of childhood exposure,
45See Huron, Sweet Anticipation, 224. Huron attributes the term to Jamshed Bharucha, and uses it to differentiate between episodic memory and the expectation that comes with it.
46Huron views schematic expectations akin to ―auditory generalizations.‖ See Huron, Sweet Anticipation, 225.
47See Huron, Sweet Anticipation, 122.
48Cohen, ―Music cognition,‖ 77.
147 The imagining of music, even in relatively non musical people, tends to be remarkably faithful not only to the tune and feeling of the original but to its pitch and tempo. Underlying this is the extraordinary tenacity of musical memory, so that much of what is heard during one's early years may be "engraved" on the brain for the rest of one's life.49
In Freedom and the Arts, Charles Rosen suggests that learning to play an instrument offers irreplaceable opportunities for experiential learning via assimilation of musical material. He insists that, not only does this increase familiarity with the musical repertoire, it also enhances its understanding and appreciation. Rosen ties this critical awareness to the sustainability of a music culture as follows:
For serious music to play an important role in a culture requires not only a significant number of professionals who can be hired to perform it, but a dedicated body of amateurs who take active but occasional part in its production. . . . The transcriptions of string quartets and symphonies for two or four hands was a common way of getting acquainted with the most important works that one would hear in the concert hall. . . . Learning to sing and learning to play the piano have been supplanted today by collecting records. This is a disquieting development that is already affecting the future. The audience for serious music has become increasingly passive, and there is no longer an important body of educated listeners experienced in the making of music that can act as a bridge between the general public and the professional.50
Similarly, Composer Paul Hindemith believed that inciting individuals to take an active part in the music-making process, such as through group/choral singing, would not only benefit music culture but also result in a more humane society, one sharing a mutual understanding of the values of harmony and community.51Perhaps the passivity that Rosen refers to above can turn to active participation when referential devices exist within a work. This is where short-term memory has a part to play in the listening experience.
49 Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia, xi.
50 Charles Rosen, Freedom and the Arts, 34; 35.
51 For a good discussion on music functionalism and the thoughts of Hindemith, see Magnar Breivik, Musical Functionalism: The Musical Thoughts of Arnold Schoenberg and Paul Hindemith (Interplay: Music in Interdisciplinary Dialogue; No.8), ed. Siglind Bruhn (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2011), more specifically, 349-388.
148 Short-term memory is where in-progress events etch impressions. Repetition, tonal anchoring, rhythmic grounding, event signaling, etc., offer opportunities to elicit short-term memory and create dynamic expectations, and hopefully, result in intellectual arousal and enhanced participation. This vision is key to the method of composition proposed in the research at hand and must be emphasized before we embark on detailing compositional choices attempting to invite and engage participants. Huron's suggestion to create predictive rewards by utilizing experiential learning acquired through exposure leads us to supplement our exploration for each type of memory and related expectation.