Klarinet Archive - Posting 000923.txt from 2000/09

From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: Re: [kl] Brahms Sonata No. 2
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 16:41:01 -0400

On Thu, 28 Sep 2000 12:39:48 -0700 (PDT), Bilwright@-----.net said:

> Tony Pay wrote:
>
> > Bill Wright wrote:
> >
> > > Tony Pay wrote:
> > >
> > > > You can do a search on 'magic diminuendo' in the archives, if
> > > > you don't know what I mean.
> > >
> > > I didn't, but now I do. Thank you. This topic reminds me of how
> > > some major nerves to the mouth muscles are not connected (directly
> > > or indirectly) to certain 'emotional centers' in the brain,
> > > particularly the center that drives a 'smile'. If you believe
> > > that these particular emotional centers should participate in
> > > music, then the situation is quite similar to the diaphragm.
> >
> > I'm afraid you'll have to spell this out for me a bit more.
>
> The subject line (in the Klarinet archives) is "More neurology +
> embouchure".
>
> It's a long message, so I won't inflict it on the List again.

The post says:

> According to this book that I'm reading (Descartes' Error), if a
> person's smile is caused by actual 'happy' or 'friendly' emotions,
> then the mouth muscles are controlled by a certain part of the
> person's brain. But if the same person decides to 'fake' a smile --
> perhaps just because it's the polite thing to do -- then the mouth
> muscles are controlled by some other part of the brain.
>
> These two parts of the brain do not communicate with each other
> (according to data from PET scans, brain injuries, etc). In fact,
> neurologists have different medical names for two types of brain
> injury, both of which damage the ability to express emotions with the
> facial muscles, but each version is caused by injury to a different
> brain area. One of the brain areas is under conscious control, and the
> other is not.
>
> A 'true' smile also involves some muscles around the eyes, and these
> eye muscles are controlled by the 'true smile' area in the brain, not
> by the 'conscious fake smile' area. The book goes on to discuss (at
> some length) the neurology of how actors manage to 'fake' a smile as
> part of their art, and also why a well-trained investigator can
> usually distinguish between a 'fake' smile and a 'true' smile.
>
> After reading all of this, my thought was that apparently, when you
> make a rational (conscious) (voluntary) decision to put your face
> muscles into a specific configuration -- as in embouchure -- you are
> not using (can not use) the part of your brain that responds with
> uncontrived emotions.
>
> When someone says, "I express my feelings in my music", well....
> this statement appears not to be entirely true for musicians who use
> an embouchure to play (when judged by PET scans and neural anatomy).

Allow me to paraphrase these last two paragraphs as you might have
written them:

> After reading all of this, my thought was that apparently, when you
> make a rational (conscious) (voluntary) decision to put your face
> muscles into a specific configuration -- as in when you kiss someone
> -- you are not using (can not use) the part of your brain that
> responds with uncontrived emotions.
>
> When someone says, "I express my feelings when I kiss someone",
> well.... this statement appears not to be entirely true for people who
> use their lips to kiss (when judged by PET scans and neural anatomy).

??

Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339

... "Very Bad Idea" is quite possibly a registered trademark of Microsoft...

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