Each assignment is posted one week in advance of the due date.
For each reading or listening assignment, each student is asked to write a brief summary of what s/he has learned from the assigned material. In the case of reading assignments, the summary should include a concise restatement of the most important points, and a personal evaluation of the information in the reading. In the case of listening assignments, the summary should include observations about the music and its experimental goals, as discussed in class. The summary should be either a) computer-printed and handed in during class on the due date or b) sent as a plain-text email before the start of class on the due date.
Read the first two chapters of What to Listen for in Music by Aaron Copland, available on reserve under "Dobrian" in the Arts Media Center.
Read the first three sections of the article "Music and Language" by Chris Dobrian, available on the Web at http://music.arts.uci.edu/dobrian/CD.music.lang.htm. You need only read as far as, but not including, the heading "The Vocal Origins of Music".
Read "Sine Waves and Resonance", the third chapter of The Science of Musical Sound by John R. Pierce, available on reserve under "Dobrian" in the Arts Media Center.
Read "The Problem of Temporal Experience", the first chapter of On the Experience of Time by Robert E. Ornstein, available on reserve under "Dobrian" in the Arts Media Center.
Read the article "Experimental design in psychoacoustic research" by Daniel J. Levitin, from the book Music Cognition and Computerized Sound : An Introduction to Psychoacoustics edited by Perry Cook. This article is available on the web. To find it, go to Daniel J. Levitin's website at http://ww2.mcgill.ca/psychology/levitin/, and under the heading "Research" choose "Publications", then click on the title of the article in his bibliography.
Read the article "Scientific Objectivity in Question", from the web book Science Limited by Robert R. Priddy, available on the web at http://home.no.net/rrpriddy/lim/5.html.
Not required, but highly recommended: Attend the concert/demonstration by Troika Ranch and students of the UCI Dance Department at 8:00 pm in the Winifred Smith Hall at UCI on Wednesday October 23. They will perform works for dancer-controlled music and video, using the Isadora software. The concert will include explanation of the technology and ideas behind the compositions.
1. All students should read each of the following three short articles and write a brief summary of ideas treated in the articles and questions raised.
Read the article "Music and Spatial Task Performance", by Rauscher et al.
Read the abstract of a presentation titled "Music and Spatial Task Performance: A Causal Relationship", by Rauscher et al.
Read the article "On the Importance of Being Accurate" by Professor Norman M. Weinberger in his web newsletter Music Research Notes.
2. Each student should read at least one of the following four articles, and should be prepared to summarize it for the rest of the class.
Read the article "Listening to Mozart enhances spatial-temporal reasoning: towards a neuropsychological basis" by Rauscher et al, on reserve under "Dobrian" in the Arts Media Center.
Read the article "Music training causes long-term enhancement of preschool children's spatial-temporal reasoning" by Rauscher et al, on reserve under "Dobrian" in the Arts Media Center.
Read the article "The Mozart Effect", a letter by Gordon Shaw to the editor of the journal Epilepsy and Behavior, on reserve under "Dobrian" in the Arts Media Center.
Read - or at least scan - the article "Toward a Neural Theory of Higher Brain Function Using Music as a Window" by Leng and Shaw, on reserve under "Dobrian" in the Arts Media Center. Summarize the essential main idea of the article in terms you think a non-scientist could understand. 3. Perform additional research, to contribute more information to the upcoming class session.
Visit the web site "Mozart Effect" - Music/Brain Research and do as much further research on this topic as you can.
Visit the MuSICA web site of UCI professor Norman M. Weinberger for a large collection of interesting essays on various aspects of scientific knowledge about the brain-music relationship.
Here are few more related web sites:
A page on the Mozart Effect by The MIND Institute headed by Gordon Shaw.
You can see how the Mozart Effect has been registered as a trademark and commericalized by Don Campbell on MozartEffect.com.
An article on an attempt to replicate (or not replicate) Rauscher and Shaw's findings.A text from The Osgood File radio broadcast reporting on detractors of the Mozart effect. The site contains links to other relevant information.
Read the articles "The Future of Music: Credo", "Experimental Music", and "Experimental Music: Doctrine" by John Cage. These are pp. 3-17 of his book Silence, and are on reserve in the AMC.
Listen to the CD Sonatas and Interludes by John Cage (CD 3340 in the AMC), tracks 6, 7, and 2. (Listen to more if you'd like, of course.) In addition to the liner notes, you can find some short articles on reserve about this piece. You don't need to write a summary of those articles, though.
Listen to the CD I am sitting in a room by Alvin Lucier (CD 2281 in the AMC). Listen to the beginning of the piece (the first 5-to-10 minutes), then fast-forward and listen to excerpts at five-minute intervals throughout the rest of the piece. (Naturally you can listen to the entire piece if you prefer.) You can find a further explanation of the piece in the liner notes.
Your written work should be a summary of the Cage writings, and some brief comments about the intentions and aesthetic effect of the musical works.
Read pages 1-11 ("Chapter 1: Free stochastic Music") of Formalized Music by Iannis Xenakis, on reserve in the AMC.
Listen to the piece "Entropy" by C. Dobrian, on the CD Artful Devices (on reserve in the AMC). Read the liner notes for an explanation of the artistic impetus and compositional technique.
http://music.arts.uci.edu/dobrian/CD.MusicProgramming.htmRead the essay "Music Programming" by by C. Dobrian.
Listen to the pieces "Unnatural Selection" (two versions) and "There's Just One Thing You Need To Know" by C. Dobrian, on the CD Artful Devices (on reserve in the AMC). Read the liner notes for an explanation of the artistic impetus and compositional technique. (If you don't know what a genetic algorithm is, look up the term.)
Read the article "Digital Audio" by by C. Dobrian.
Listen to the piece "Insta-pene-playtion" by C. Dobrian, the first track on the CD Interproviplaytions (on reserve in the AMC). Listen to tracks 2 and 3, too, if you have the time.
This page was last modified November 26, 2002
Christopher Dobrian, dobrian@uci.edu