Consciousness, Literature and the Arts

Archive

Volume 4 Number 3, December 2003

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Synder, Bob. Music and Memory: An Introduction. Cambridge MA.: MIT Press, 2000. pp289 ISBN 0-262-69237-6 pbk $

 

Reviewed by

 

Christine Boyko-Head

 

Music, in one style or another, in one way or another, touches all peoples. Music and Memory, by composer, video artist and teacher Bob Synder, tries to explain why music influences so many people. Originally conceived as a text for Synder’s undergraduate music composition classes at the School of Art Institute of Chicago, Music and Memory proposes that our appreciation and understanding of music may be linked to cognitive factors and “to the nervous system’s ability to process information” (xiii). In other words, the text attempts to reinforce the lyrical phrase, “I got the music in me” through the use of scholarly rigor and evolving theoretical positions.

The text is divided into two parts. Part one contains nine chapters dealing  with cognitive psychology with a specific focus on memory states. Synder spends a great deal of effort explaining short term and long term memory, closure, categories and schemas as frameworks for experience and memory. Within these first hundred pages, he provides detailed descriptions and diagrams of the neurological circuitry that creates the different memory types. Despite part one’s concentration on psychological explanations, music is never far from the surface. For example, wile examining schemas as the “large network of memories with potential associative connections” (96), Synder brings music into the discussion by stating that “schemas in the form of musical patterns and styles are largely responsible for our feelings of expectations while listening to a piece of music” (96) His constant interweaving of musical links to the scientific data retrieves Part one from spiraling into a neurological abyss. Thus, implicitly or explicitly, Part one contains a rhythmic flow where the reader willingly succumbs to the current of scientific information because that information will eventual shore-up on the banks of musical significance.

Clearly, Synder’s main argument is dependent upon the reader’s understanding of cognitive psychology and current theoretical consideration. Synder states “this book is about memory and how it effects our perception of the world and our experience of music”. To validate this thesis he uses qualitative evidence in one area of research and then transfers those findings to the realm of music.

Part Two is the musical manifestation of part one. Here, the text discusses melody, rhythm, meter, and form in order to further the statement that “in music that has communication as its goal, the structure of the music must take into consideration the structure of memory – even if we want to work against that structure” (3). In this section, the lucid writing, generous musical examples, notes, listening suggestions, and detailed glossary signifies the author’s consideration for his audience. The breadth of the material in this energized latter section is excellent for students interested in linking psychology to music composition and comprehension. The fact that Synder recognizes that the shifting planes of research may alter his statements lends further credibility to his scholarly integrity and dedication to an interdisciplinary study of music and memory.

However, this book is not for everyone. Certainly, the reader does not have to have musical training; yet, the depth of Synder’s argument makes an understanding of music and psychology to be beneficial. Overall, Music and Memory reads like a well-written and enthusiastic course text. Although Synder mentions in the Preface  how the individual’s cultural and experiential knowledge influences musical perception, his interest is in describing how “the human nervous system is subject to universal cognitive constraints, some of which impinge on possibilities for musical structure” (xvii). And he remains faithful to this task. But his suggestion that the concepts in this text be applied to music of other cultures could be of particular interest for those interested in arts education. While beyond the text’s scope, reader’s can transfer Synder’s interesting findings and ask how music can influence the acquisition of various types of knowledge. Can his musical connections with cognitive theory provide the scientific evidence needed to save music programs in formal education? Can his discussion of memory distinctions and cognitive concepts  in relation to the origins of certain kinds of musical structures be a possible theoretical framework for the application of music to enhance the construction of sequences of information? Music and Memory, by Bob Synder is thoroughly researched and presented. Like our favourite piece of music, the concepts presented in this text, while complex and at times complicated, stay in our memory so that we are left humming a new tune with new possibilities.