aural illusions
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On The Musicality Of M.C. Escher
“Order is repetition of units. Chaos is multiplicity without rhythm.” “My work is a game, a very serious game.” “Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?” – M.C. Escher I’ve long been curious about M.C. Escher’s (1898-1972) drawings and woodcuts because of their precision, their order and symmetry, their use Continue reading
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On Perception And Playing A Polyrhythm
A polyrhythm is the simultaneous sounding of more than one rhythm. I find polyrhythms endlessly interesting, mainly because they play with our perceptions, especially our sense of what is foreground and what is background. In this way, polyrhythms are the aural equivalent of those optical illusions you may remember from Psychology 101, such as the Continue reading
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On Minimalism and Aural Illusions
One of the enduring contributions of the so-called American “minimalist” composers–particularly Steve Reich and Philip Glass–to global music culture was to re-introduce shape-shifting, metamorphosing aural illusions to our listening experience through intense repetition, polyrhythm and additive rhythms. These rhythmic devices are not new in music–you can certainly hear them in some African and Indonesian musics–but they Continue reading
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On The Neuroscience Of Magic And The Magic Of Aural Illusions In Music
In their engaging book Sleights Of Mind, Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde explore the neurobiology of attention in the context of the magician’s art. They argue that illusions, slights of hand and other tricks have much to offer the study of how we think because magicians specialize in playing with our perceptions and (mis)guiding our attention. Magic manipulates the reality of our Continue reading
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