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A Scientific Approach to the Humanities
Maria Konnikova has a very disappointing article up on Scientific American where she says that the humanities don’t constitute a science and therefore shouldn’t be approached with scientific...
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Does awe have evolutionary advantages?
This video by Jason Silva, no doubt meant to deliver a gust of uplift, supports the idea that the human ability to feel awe is biologically adaptive, and so was directly selected for during our...
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The Dark Side of Creativity
I just came across a review by Seana Moran of a 2010 book called The Dark Side of Creativity (ed. David Cropley and others), which brings together a number of essays that look at creativity from a...
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A Postscript on Science and the Humanities
Just under a week ago, I commented on an article by Maria Konnikova in Scientific American called, ‘Humanities aren’t a science. Stop treating them like one’ (make a mental note of that title). Today,...
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An Elite for Everyone
Today, I came across yet another infographic claiming how just about anyone can foster their creativity, and it made me think that one of the biggest cons of modern culture that we gormlessly accept is...
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Science the Usurper
Jonathan Jones has a thought-provoking and no doubt tremendously controversial article at The Guardian suggesting that science has ousted art from the role of “expanding minds and imaginations and...
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Defining Music
I recently came across an extremely interesting and very well-written article in Frontiers in Psychology suggesting that, during childhood, the brain treats language as a specialised form of music. I...
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Language as a Form of Music
Last week, I commented on the first half of a research article about music and language acquisition in which the authors started by proposing a comprehensive, scientific definition of music. In brief,...
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Anthony Burgess, Failed Composer
This week, I came across this fascinating article about Anthony Burgess, which describes how he was determined to become the next great English composer after hearing Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi...
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Merry Christmas
I’d originally intended not to write a generic ‘Merry Christmas’ for the readers who stray near my blog – well-wishes from strangers on the internet are always so impersonally innumerable across social...
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The Future is Never New: Part One
That’s it. I’ve finished my degree and there’s no going back. As I write this, I haven’t yet been told how well I remembered everything I had to remember, or how original were my arguments about...
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Originality in Music
Sam McNerny (who I follow on Why We Reason, and who I criticised tangentially in a post about the neuroscience of creativity) has an article up at The Creativity Post called ‘What Radiohead Teaches Us...
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A Scientific Approach to the Humanities
Maria Konnikova has a very disappointing article up on Scientific American where she says that the humanities don’t constitute a science and therefore shouldn’t be approached with scientific...
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‘The Noon Witch’ by Dvořák and Erben
This is part of an archived series of annotated YouTube videos exploring classical music inspired by literature. Dvořák’s symphonic poem from 1896, The Noon Witch, is based on the poem by the same name...
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‘The Water Goblin’ by Antonín Dvořák
This is part of an archived series of annotated YouTube videos exploring classical music inspired by literature. Dvořák’s symphonic poem from 1896, The Water Goblin, is based on the poem by the same...
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The ‘Manfred’ Symphony by Pyotr Tchaikovsky
This is part of an archived series of annotated YouTube videos exploring classical music inspired by literature. Tchaikovsky’s programmatic symphony from 1885, the Manfred Symphony, is based on the...
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‘Francesca da Rimini’ by Pyotr Tchaikovsky
This is part of an archived series of annotated YouTube videos exploring classical music inspired by literature. Tchaikovsky’s symphonic fantasy from 1876, Francesca da Rimini, is based on the fifth...
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Musical Phi
Applying mathematics to music can be fun, but it’s even better to throw in music theory too. The 18th, I think, was Phi day (I say “think” because some sources on the web say it really ought to be in...
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Defining Music
When we listen to music, it seems so obvious what it is, but defining it isn’t a simple task. 1. Brandt, A., Gebrian, M. and Slevc, L, ‘Music and Early Language Acquisition’, Frontiers in Psychology 3...
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Language as a Form of Music
Our abilities for language and music overlap in the brain, but does that mean one is a form of the other? Last week, I commented on the first half of a research article about music and language...
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