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Cerebral versus Visceral?

Generally // Generically 'framed' as Musical vs. Accurate.

I have issue with the above two words being separated as I find that to be musical there must be accuracy or preferably (to me) 'realism.' Further, I believe that both 'words' have been appropriated and attributed with connotations by respective 'camps' and that 'musical / accurate' is generally discussed as being on a continuum or sliding scale with each on polar ends.

Below is a link to a Steve Guttenberg video on the this topic. I like his choice of 'cerebral' vs. 'visceral.' 

He discusses this from a "speaker" perspective...I see it as a SYSTEM result. 

Thoughts and Reaction?

"With some speakers you feel the music, and with others you just think about it."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWqcu1wR1sw
david_ten
erik_squires
16,138 posts
 
I want to expand on @nonoise point.

One really interesting idea I've been thinking about for a while is where exactly in our body do we perceive music? 

The idea that the ear/brain mechanism is the only part of the equation may not be fully accurate. By this, I don't mean where do we feel emotion. I literally mean, does our skin, and the nerves in that and our viscera play a part in our perception and interpretation of music? 

Like Freud, who over emphasized the mind, and cognition, without taking into account the part our brain/skin/body played in our sense of self and well being, do we do the same with music? I think this may be among the most fascinating future topics. 

Best,

Erik 
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
10,885 posts
 
@erik_squires 

I feel that the skin is a receptor in more ways than we give it credit for. There's touch(ing), feel(ing), and the like for navigating our bodies on a daily basis. There's levels of that for everything from simple tasks to making love to playing sports to life and death scenarios. 

It's our skin that was the first organ to deal with life as we evolved and our ears that eventually became the finely tuned instruments that they are. There's still some purpose of hearing left in the skin on a rudimentary level that works in concert with our ears. It's not just the bones in our skulls that aid in hearing, as I see it.

That accounts for frisson, which I've brought up a couple of times before and it looks like now it's relevant, again. It could be that through simple disuse coupled with technology that we don't rely on our skin's hearing ability as we used to but some of us are still in touch (pardon the pun) with that innate ability as simply crunching the numbers statistically would bear out. It couldn't just cease in all of us at the same time. 

Food for thought.
All the best,
Nonoise
amg56's avatar
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amg56
887 posts
 

I think that you can be quite cerebral listening to the music when picking out the notes, the reverb, the ting that comes out of an accurate system. You can envision it in the minds eye, almost see that musician performing it.

Visceral, or gut, is the excitement or emotion one has, when cerebral gives way to enjoyment. as @erik_squires states "I think this may be among the most fascinating future topics". Agreed!

I love both cerebral and visceral. A.

roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
Musicality is the refuge of the untutored!
david_ten OP
5,480 posts
 
Since it has been raised: On hearing through our skin....

- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/skin-hearing-airflow-puff-sound-perception/

- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/haptic-hearing/
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