Book ID: CBB989492691

Polyphonic Minds: Music of the Hemispheres (2017)

unapi

Pesic, Peter (Author)


The MIT Press


Publication Date: 2017
Physical Details: 344
Language: English

An exploration of polyphony and the perspective it offers on our own polyphonic brains.Polyphony―the interweaving of simultaneous sounds―is a crucial aspect of music that has deep implications for how we understand the mind. In Polyphonic Minds, Peter Pesic examines the history and significance of “polyphonicity”―of “many-voicedness”―in human experience. Pesic presents the emergence of Western polyphony, its flowering, its horizons, and the perspective it offers on our own polyphonic brains. When we listen to polyphonic music, how is it that we can hear several different things at once? How does a single mind experience those things as a unity (a motet, a fugue) rather than an incoherent jumble? Pesic argues that polyphony raises fundamental issues for philosophy, theology, literature, psychology, and neuroscience―all searching for the apparent unity of consciousness in the midst of multiple simultaneous experiences. After tracing the development of polyphony in Western music from ninth-century church music through the experimental compositions of Glenn Gould and John Cage, Pesic considers the analogous activity within the brain, the polyphonic “music of the hemispheres” that shapes brain states from sleep to awakening. He discusses how neuroscientists draw on concepts from polyphony to describe the “neural orchestra” of the brain. Pesic's story begins with ancient conceptions of God's mind and ends with the polyphonic personhood of the human brain and body. An enhanced e-book edition allows the sound examples to be played by a touch.

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Reviewed By

Review Janet Danielson (2019) Review of "Polyphonic Minds: Music of the Hemispheres". Journal for the History of Astronomy (pp. 103-105). unapi

Review Ellen Lockhart (2019) Review of "Polyphonic Minds: Music of the Hemispheres". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 574-575). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB989492691/

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Authors & Contributors
Ruben E. Verwaal
Adin E. Lears
Leblanc, Richard
Tye, Michael
Zanarini, Gianni
Zaidi, Hasan A.
Concepts
Senses and sensation; perception
Auditory perception
Brain
Neurosciences
Music
Consciousness
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, late
20th century, early
Medieval
Early modern
Places
England
Americas
United States
Greece
Germany
Europe
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