Library of Congress

Steve Mencher from the Library of Congress discusses “States of Mind: Music in Islamic Sufi Rituals” with Dr. Taoufiq ben Amor, Gordon Gray J. Lecturer, Arabic Studies, Columbia University.

Dr. Richard E. Cytowic, MD, of George Washington Medical Center discusses his presentation “Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia.”

Michael Kubovy and Judith Shatin of the University of Virginia discuss their presentation “The Mind of an Artist.” Debate has long raged about whether and how music expresses meaning beyond its sounding notes. Kubovy and Shatin discuss evidence that music does indeed have a semantic element, and offer examples of how composers embody extra-musical elements in their compositions. Kubovy is a cognitive psychologist who studies visual and auditory perception, and Shatin is a composer who explores similar issues in her music.

Helfgott and Middleton examine the use of classical music by law enforcement and other cultural institutions as social control, to quell and prevent crime. Their conversation touches on how classical music is viewed in contemporary culture, how it can be a tool for discouraging criminal activity and anti-social behavior, as well as its history as a mind-altering experience.

Jacqueline Helfgott, Seattle University, author of Criminal Behavior: Theories, Typologies, and Criminal Justice (2008), and Norman Middleton, Library of Congress Music Division

From Mode to Emotion in Musical Communication: Steven Brown, Director of the NeuroArts Lab at McMaster University, discusses his work looking at the expression of emotion in both Western and non-Western musics. Music employs a number of mechanisms for conveying emotion. Some of them are shared with other modes of expression (speech, gesture) while others are specific to music. The most unique way that music communicates emotion is through the use of contrastive scale types. While Westerners are familiar with the major/minor distinction, the use of contrastive scale types in world musics is universal.

Artistic anathemas, musical mayhem, and cultural conundrums such as “the devil’s music” – Middleton and Krash explore the psychological and social issues associated with the human tendency toward censorship of musical expression, as well as what has been described as “suicide-by-music” and crimes that have been connected to musical genres.