Abstract
While the "units, events and dynamics" of memetic evolution have been abstractly theorized (Lynch, 1998), they have not been applied systematically to real corpora in music. Some researchers, convinced of the validity of cultural evolution in more than the metaphorical sense adopted by much musicology, but perhaps skeptical of some or all of the claims of memetics, have attempted statistically based corpus-analysis techniques of music drawn from molecular biology, and these have offered strong evidence in favor of system-level change over time (Savage, 2017). This article argues that such statistical approaches, while illuminating, ignore the psychological realities of music-information grouping, the transmission of such groups with varying degrees of fidelity, their selection according to relative perceptual-cognitive salience, and the power of this Darwinian process to drive the systemic changes (such as the development over time of systems of tonal organization in music) that statistical methodologies measure. It asserts that a synthesis between such statistical approaches to the study of music-cultural change and the theory of memetics as applied to music (Jan, 2007), in particular the latter's perceptual-cognitive elements, would harness the strengths of each approach and deepen understanding of cultural evolution in music.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 344 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | APR |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 4 Apr 2018 |
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The Two Brothers : Reconciling perceptual-cognitive and statistical models of musical evolution . / Jan, Steven.
In: Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 9, No. APR, 344, 04.04.2018.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - The Two Brothers
T2 - Reconciling perceptual-cognitive and statistical models of musical evolution
AU - Jan, Steven
N1 - [revised and expanded version of that published in Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on New Music Concepts (ICNMC 2017)]
PY - 2018/4/4
Y1 - 2018/4/4
N2 - While the "units, events and dynamics" of memetic evolution have been abstractly theorized (Lynch, 1998), they have not been applied systematically to real corpora in music. Some researchers, convinced of the validity of cultural evolution in more than the metaphorical sense adopted by much musicology, but perhaps skeptical of some or all of the claims of memetics, have attempted statistically based corpus-analysis techniques of music drawn from molecular biology, and these have offered strong evidence in favor of system-level change over time (Savage, 2017). This article argues that such statistical approaches, while illuminating, ignore the psychological realities of music-information grouping, the transmission of such groups with varying degrees of fidelity, their selection according to relative perceptual-cognitive salience, and the power of this Darwinian process to drive the systemic changes (such as the development over time of systems of tonal organization in music) that statistical methodologies measure. It asserts that a synthesis between such statistical approaches to the study of music-cultural change and the theory of memetics as applied to music (Jan, 2007), in particular the latter's perceptual-cognitive elements, would harness the strengths of each approach and deepen understanding of cultural evolution in music.
AB - While the "units, events and dynamics" of memetic evolution have been abstractly theorized (Lynch, 1998), they have not been applied systematically to real corpora in music. Some researchers, convinced of the validity of cultural evolution in more than the metaphorical sense adopted by much musicology, but perhaps skeptical of some or all of the claims of memetics, have attempted statistically based corpus-analysis techniques of music drawn from molecular biology, and these have offered strong evidence in favor of system-level change over time (Savage, 2017). This article argues that such statistical approaches, while illuminating, ignore the psychological realities of music-information grouping, the transmission of such groups with varying degrees of fidelity, their selection according to relative perceptual-cognitive salience, and the power of this Darwinian process to drive the systemic changes (such as the development over time of systems of tonal organization in music) that statistical methodologies measure. It asserts that a synthesis between such statistical approaches to the study of music-cultural change and the theory of memetics as applied to music (Jan, 2007), in particular the latter's perceptual-cognitive elements, would harness the strengths of each approach and deepen understanding of cultural evolution in music.
KW - Qualitative
KW - Quantitative
KW - Perceptual-cognitive
KW - Statistical
KW - Memetics
KW - Phylomemetics
KW - Cultural Evolution
KW - Cultural evolution
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85045030453&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00344
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00344
M3 - Article
VL - 9
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
SN - 1664-1078
IS - APR
M1 - 344
ER -