Formidlingstekst – PhD Cup 2017
Som eksempel på en formidlingstekst i forbindelse med min ansøgning til PhD Cup 2017 har jeg
forneden indsat script samt slides, som jeg anvendte ved TEDxAarhus d. 1. oktober 2016. Denne
TEDx-talk tog udgangspunkt i min ph.d.-forskning, som jeg forsvarede d. 15. april 2016.
TEDxAARHUS, 1st October 2016
Niels Chr. Hansen: ‘We are all musical beings’
[Play mm. 1-64 from Beethoven, op. 27 no. 2, III]
I was wondering, how many of you think you had a sense of where the music was going next? Ok, some of
you did… Although you might not know this piece of music, I will claim you all had conscious or
unconscious expectations when I suddenly stopped. Later on, I will tell you where these expectations
come from… and, who knows, I might even play the continuation of the piece.
What you just heard was the opening of the 3rd movement from Ludwig van Beethoven’s famous
“Moonlight Sonata”; a fast, furious, and truly challenging piece calling for high degrees of musical
expertise on the part of the performer.
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In fact, we regard the moon, which has so often been associated with this piece, in similar ways to the
skills required to perform it. The moon is a distant and mysterious object – far beyond reach to any of
us. To most people, musical skills appear just as unachievable.
“How many of you in here think that you are musical?”
I will claim that we are all musical beings, with an inbuilt potential to become experts. Just like
technology and curiosity eventually brought humanity up there, to the moon, hard work and
persistent dedication provide the tools for each of us to achieve musical expertise.
In my view, the reason why we tend to think that musical skills are so unachievable is that we believe
in a “Romanticised concept of musical genius”. For instance, Peter Lichtenthal, a 19th-century
composer and medical doctor puts it like this:
“Musical genius is that inborn, inexplicable gift of Nature, or original faculty to create with facility
esthetic ideas and to give them the most fitting expression in the melodic and harmonic organization
of tones.”
What our friend Peter is really saying is that there are five things we tend to believe about musical
expertise. (1) First, that it is elusive (“it cannot be studied scientifically”); (2) Second, that it is innate
(“you’re born with it); (3) Third, that it is all-or-nothing (“either you have it or you don’t”); (4) Fourth,
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that it is creative (“it pertains to producing music rather than to listening to it”). Finally, we believe
musical expertise to be (5) advantageous (“you should be grateful if you have it and jealous if you
don’t”).
I know, this all sounds very scientific. However, you also find this Romanticised view in the public
media. Here’s a good example:
You’re probably all familiar with the world-famous TV show “X-Factor”?
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On this show, hundreds of hopeful candidates perform in front of an expert panel. The panel’s task is
to detect the “X-Factor” in the performers. So what is this X-factor? The X-Factor is the undefinable
extra something that only very few people are gifted with from birth. The rest of us don’t have it; and
that’s unfortunate for us. The lucky few with X-Factor just need to be discovered; then they will
become famous popstars in a matter of months. To sum up, the X-factor is defined as (1) elusive, (2)
innate, (3) all-or-nothing, (4) creative, and (5) advantageous.
Based on research by myself and others, I will now take you on a journey to explain why these five
characterisations of musical expertise or X-factor are just as wrong as claiming that human beings
never walked on the moon. Let’s begin!
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(1) The first stop on the trip is the lab where we run our experiments. Here is what we do. First, we
feed an advanced computer model with ten thousands of melodies, hundred thousands of musical
notes. In this way, we can test different theories about how musical learning takes place in listeners
like you and me. Next, we invite these listeners to the lab and ask them listen to melodies (for
instance, classical music or jazz); then we see how they respond; either by asking them how uncertain
they are about what’s going to happen, like I did in the beginning of my talk; or how surprised they
found particular notes, or by measuring their brain signals. Using these methods, musical listening skills
can most certainly be investigated scientifically!
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(2) One of the things we discover when we do that is that the extent to which people’s expectations fit
with the musical style increases the more they have participated in musical training throughout their
lives. So just like languages need to be learned, musical styles are acquired automatically and
gradually over time through listening and practising.
Because we’ve all been exposed to music during our lives, every one of us is already a sort of listening
expert. Let me demonstrate! I will now play two continuations of the piece that I interrupted before; I
will then ask you which one is the “correct” version.
Version 1: [Play mm. 61-64 + D minor chord]
Version 2: [Play mm. 63-64 + C# minor chord]
So who thinks Version 1 was the “correct” one? And who thinks Version 2 was the “correct” one?
Exactly! So not only do you have strong expectations–like we saw in the beginning of the talk–most of
you can also distinguish “right” notes from “wrong” ones.
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(3) Being a skilful listener like you guys is just one aspect of expertise. In fact, there is no simple
answer as to what it means to be musical. You can be good at performing music, playing together with
others, improvising, composing, reading music, understanding emotions in music, discussing and
writing about music, singing in the shower, or even picking the right dance tunes for the next party!
Musical beings come in all shapes and sizes, and nobody excels on all aspects simultaneously – not
even the professional musicians that I will now introduce you to.
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(4) Although you, dear audience, probably can’t play the Moonlight Sonata, we just saw that you are all
very skilled in listening to classical music – a style that you’ve heard before. If, instead, you listened to
complicated jazz by the American saxophone player Charlie Parker, our experiments show that those
of you who are non-musicians probably cannot distinguish “right” from “wrong” notes – because it
takes practice. That’s what the white bar here shows. The classical musicians in the middle can do this
just as well as the jazz musicians. However, only the jazzers who have played this style of music
themselves can introspect about their stylistic knowledge. This becomes clear if we ask them how
uncertain they are about what will happen next – just like I did in the beginning of my talk. So, jazz
experts are superior, not only in playing jazz (“action”), but also in some–but not all–aspects of listening
to it (“perception”).
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(5) So, if the classical musicians have specialised in classical music – like the piano sonatas by
Beethoven – you might ask why they don’t just apply this sophisticated knowledge when listening to
jazz. Why don’t they “listen to jazz with classical ears”? Here’s the theory supported by our research.
We find that inside our brains there are cognitive firewalls. These cognitive firewalls separate musical
styles, such that our expectations are restricted to relevant contexts. There are good reasons why
evolution has built us like this. For instance, it would be a bad idea to mistake a tiger for a cat, and
similarly a bad idea to mistake Beethoven for a “jazz cat” like Charlie Parker! Cognitive firewalls
prevent us from confusing musical styles, but they also mean that our expertise doesn’t always
generalise to other contexts. So, because it requires deep specialisation, musical expertise is extremely
contextual!
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Summing up, we have learned that musical expertise is empirically investigable, acquired (to a large
extent), multidimensional, changes the way we listen to and play music, and is highly contextual.
Although the achievements of musical experts seem truly admirable and impressive, that does not
make them otherworldly geniuses. On the contrary, being a question of practice and exposure, musical
expertise is within reach for all of us. We saw how musical learning happens automatically in
everyone; for that reason, we are all musical beings!
You might ask why this is so important. What is wrong with the good, old, romanticised view of
musical genius?
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Here’s a picture of my mum. Many years ago, when she studied to become a school teacher, everyone
had to learn to play the violin. Or, in fact, not quite everyone because after a few lessons she was told
not to come back. According to her violin teacher, she lacked musicality and would never learn to
master her instrument. Why waste time on something that you cannot learn? My mum followed this
advice and refrained from taking up a musical instrument.
My mum’s example clearly demonstrates how the romanticised concept of genius – or “X-Factor” if
you like – can be used to exclude people from musical activities, sometimes for the rest of their lives.
By comparison, we would never consider excluding anyone from learning to read and write or from
learning a foreign language, just because they find it a bit difficult to begin with; just because it takes a
bit of practice. Rather, we would provide them with extra lessons. Music has existed at least as long as
language. It binds people together and even makes us human. Therefore, when we exclude people –
like my mum – from musical activities, we risk isolating them in loneliness. That’s why we need a
scientifically informed view, not only of reading and writing, but also of music and to musical expertise.
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So the next time you listen to a piece of music – maybe the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven – then
keep an ear out for your own musicality. Challenge yourself and discover how you might already know
where the music is going next. Remember that musical expertise is achievable – also to you if you
practice hard. Whether he was a genius or not, there’s one thing that Beethoven knew for sure – and
that is that all his listeners were musical beings.
So, let’s try it out; let’s listen to some music and see if you can hear your own musicality!
[Play mm. 157-189 and stop…]
Can you guess what happens next?
[Play mm. 190-200] + [Applause]
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