Summary: The Nerve Part 1 looks at how we are wired for sound – and just how all the wonder that music makes possible, is possible itself in the first place.
As you look for end of summer programming, or new ways to plant seeds in your listeners hearts and souls as fundraising season returns in September and October, I wanted to get in one additional recommendation about the mindblowing six-part series, The Nerve - Music and the Human Experience, from the CBC.
The series investigates the "how and why of music" in fresh, new ways and means. To get all that this program offers requires a mostly "sit down and give all your attention to the radio" commitment. And it's a sit down experience you can, without hesitation, tell your listeners is well worth their time and attention.
Even if you don't get all of the information and understanding of the music-brain-body interaction, the mix of voices, information, music and radio craft is so pleasing to the ear. Still, your listeners will still walk away with plenty.
(Repeating each show in the series is worth considering.)
Some people (and radio producers) know how to make far away worlds -- the mystery of science, music, the cochlea, spinal column, and the cerebral cortex -- accessible, beautiful, fun, interesting and entertaining.
The presenters and producers of this series are those people.
Highly recommended.
(More detailed reviews of Programs 1 and 3 in the series are included in the "Music Station Picks for August" Playlist.)
It makes sense that we find either a steady tone or random noise uninteresting. Neither encodes information. If you accept a Darwinian point-of-view, our brains evolved to extract meaning out of sensory input from the environment. (Or, rather, individual organisms which were differentially better able to discriminate sights, smells, tastes and SOUNDS survived and reproduced in greater proportion and so passed along to the gene pool the DNA that enabled this ability.) However, it is difficult for me to see the adaptive survival value of music per se - unless it is related to social cohesion. Maybe those of our ancestors who enjoyed music found in it a reason to go on living.
I am curious about one thing. We are large brained social primates with a unique ability and drive to use language. Is there a neurological evolutionary connection between music and speech? Or is it just coincidental that all human societies world wide share both activities?
It makes sense that we find either a steady tone or random noise uninteresting. Neither encodes information. If you accept a Darwinian point-of-view, our brains evolved to extract meaning out of sensory input from the environment. (Or, rather, individual organisms which were differentially better able to discriminate sights, smells, tastes and SOUNDS survived and reproduced in greater proportion and so passed along to the gene pool the DNA that enabled this ability.) However, it is difficult for me to see the adaptive survival value of music per se - unless it is related to social cohesion. Maybe those of our ancestors who enjoyed music found in it a reason to go on living.
I am curious about one thing. We are large brained social primates with a unique ability and drive to use language. Is there a neurological evolutionary connection between music and speech? Or is it just coincidental that all human societies world wide share both activities?
Comments for Wired for Sound: Music and the Brain
This piece belongs to the series "The Nerve - Music and the Human Experience"
Produced by Jowi Taylor, Ian Cauthery, Paolo Pietropaolo, and [redacted] [redacted]
Other pieces by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Rating Summary
3 comments
David Srebnik
Posted on August 29, 2009 at 05:15 PM | Permalink
Some people (and radio producers) know how to make far away worlds accessible, beautiful, fun, interesting and entertaining.
As you look for end of summer programming, or new ways to plant seeds in your listeners hearts and souls as fundraising season returns in September and October, I wanted to get in one additional recommendation about the mindblowing six-part series, The Nerve - Music and the Human Experience, from the CBC.
The series investigates the "how and why of music" in fresh, new ways and means. To get all that this program offers requires a mostly "sit down and give all your attention to the radio" commitment. And it's a sit down experience you can, without hesitation, tell your listeners is well worth their time and attention.
Even if you don't get all of the information and understanding of the music-brain-body interaction, the mix of voices, information, music and radio craft is so pleasing to the ear. Still, your listeners will still walk away with plenty.
(Repeating each show in the series is worth considering.)
Some people (and radio producers) know how to make far away worlds -- the mystery of science, music, the cochlea, spinal column, and the cerebral cortex -- accessible, beautiful, fun, interesting and entertaining.
The presenters and producers of this series are those people.
Highly recommended.
(More detailed reviews of Programs 1 and 3 in the series are included in the "Music Station Picks for August" Playlist.)
Larry Sides
Posted on August 01, 2009 at 09:09 PM | Permalink
We Want Information
It makes sense that we find either a steady tone or random noise uninteresting. Neither encodes information. If you accept a Darwinian point-of-view, our brains evolved to extract meaning out of sensory input from the environment. (Or, rather, individual organisms which were differentially better able to discriminate sights, smells, tastes and SOUNDS survived and reproduced in greater proportion and so passed along to the gene pool the DNA that enabled this ability.) However, it is difficult for me to see the adaptive survival value of music per se - unless it is related to social cohesion. Maybe those of our ancestors who enjoyed music found in it a reason to go on living.
I am curious about one thing. We are large brained social primates with a unique ability and drive to use language. Is there a neurological evolutionary connection between music and speech? Or is it just coincidental that all human societies world wide share both activities?
Larry Sides
Posted on August 01, 2009 at 09:09 PM | Permalink
We Want Information
It makes sense that we find either a steady tone or random noise uninteresting. Neither encodes information. If you accept a Darwinian point-of-view, our brains evolved to extract meaning out of sensory input from the environment. (Or, rather, individual organisms which were differentially better able to discriminate sights, smells, tastes and SOUNDS survived and reproduced in greater proportion and so passed along to the gene pool the DNA that enabled this ability.) However, it is difficult for me to see the adaptive survival value of music per se - unless it is related to social cohesion. Maybe those of our ancestors who enjoyed music found in it a reason to go on living.
I am curious about one thing. We are large brained social primates with a unique ability and drive to use language. Is there a neurological evolutionary connection between music and speech? Or is it just coincidental that all human societies world wide share both activities?