孔、孟“乐”理念比较研究

本文对孔子和孟子的"乐"理念的各自特点及其异同之处进行了初步分析和评价。作者认为,孔子的"乐"理念具有明显的泛伦理化倾向。他所关注和注重的,乃是"乐"的社会教化、社会整合的伦理调节功能。孔子视"礼""仁"为"乐"之魂魄,视"至善"为"乐"之归宿和极致。"乐"的艺术审美特质被淡化和边缘化。孟子对孔子"乐"理念的最大修正,在于他将其"民本"的政治诉求贯彻于其"乐"理念之中,诉诸"与民同乐"的政治氛围,从而将"乐"理念平等化、平民化、感性化,扬弃了孔子对"乐"的种种宗法等级束缚,破除了对"乐"的雅俗之别的偏见,从而使"乐"理念向其平等的、感性的审美氛围迈出了重要的一步。同孔子泛伦理化的"乐"理念相比较,孟子的"乐"理念则具有泛政治化的理论倾向。     

Music interferes with learning from television during infancy

Infants are frequently exposed to music during daily activities, including free play, and while viewing infant‐directed videotapes that contain instrumental music soundtracks. In Experiment 1, an instrumental music soundtrack was played during a live or televised demonstration to examine its effects on deferred imitation by 6‐, 12‐, and 18‐month‐old infants. Transfer of information was indexed via deferred imitation of the target actions following a 24‐h delay. For half the infants, the music context was also reinstated at the time of test. Performance by experimental groups was compared to that of a baseline control group that participated in the test session without prior exposure to the demonstration. Imitation performance was above baseline for the live groups but not for the video groups regardless of age or the music context at test. In Experiment 2, we added matched sound effects to the video demonstration and infants performed above baseline. We conclude that the music track creates additional cognitive load, disrupts selective attention to the target actions and inhibits transfer of learning from television of the imitation task. Music may impair an infant's ability to translate information from a two‐dimensional to three‐dimensional world even if the auditory context remains the same. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

音乐节拍认知的研究评述

音乐节拍中的信息十分丰富,变化的方式也千差万别,因此节拍的加工是十分复杂的认知过程。国外神经认知领域对音乐节拍的研究从内容来看可归纳为:节拍违反的加工,节拍速度的加工,节拍类型的加工,以及节拍与节奏的区别等几个方面。目前关于音乐节拍的研究还处于初步探索阶段,未来的研究应明确时间间隔、速度变化、重音模式加工的神经基础,并就复杂节拍的加工,个体感受性差异等问题进一步展开研究。     

An interpretation of Babette's Feast as a parable of trauma

In this paper I use the film Babette's Feast as a parable to portray the impasse that often arises out of the experience of complex trauma. The experience of such trauma invokes a crisis of reality. It overflows the boundaries of rational containment. There are no mechanisms with which to apprehend such an event, and consequently it cannot be comprehended; because it cannot be comprehended it cannot be processed. The film Babette's Feast encapsulates the predicament of the individual ensnared in the web of trauma. Although removed from the location and events of her trauma, Babette remains the resident of an austere and colourless environment, her gifts repressed, her brilliance unseen. Healing comes to Babette through her willingness to revisit her true self, a self that has been crushed under the weight of grief and trauma. This revisiting costs her all she has. Yet, it is in this revisiting that she not only frees herself from the austerity of her environment but also engenders purpose and hope within the community who have taken her in. The dissonance of her life is paralleled by the dissonance of the life of the community in which she lives; it is the harmonizing of these dissonances which cannot be spoken that finally gives articulation to the incoherence of Babette's trauma.     

Music and melancholy: Marsilio Ficino's archetypal music therapy

Melancholy, to Ficino, is a state in which the mind, the realm of deep, abstract thinking, is cut off from the supply of the spirit. His concept of spirit corresponds to a kind of universal life-energy (libido, in Jungian terms). Individually, as the spirit of man, it appears as projected into the blood of the human body, collectively, as spirit of the world, into the spheres of the planets.
The spirit of man corresponds to the spirit of the world and can receive from it a great deal through the rays of the planets. To attract the 'spiritual' influence of a particular planet you may use animals, plants, food, scents, talismans. But music is what is recommended most strongly.
Ficino's intention is to temper the melancholic influence of Saturn. Consequently, his astrological songs are addressed to the compensating benign planets, the Sun, Jupiter and Venus. In modern terms it is an attempt, consciously, by active imagination, to re-establish the emotional relatedness with the archetypal realms of the planets from which Saturn has cut us off.
Ficino's ideas are related to Jung's rehabilitation of the feeling-function     

What Can Experiments Reveal About the Origins of Music?

ABSTRACT— The origins of music have intrigued scholars for thousands of years. In this article I discuss the role of experiments in discussions of these issues. I argue that potentially useful kinds of evidence are those that address the innateness and the specificity of different components of musical behavior. At present there is some evidence for innate influences on music, but little evidence for capacities that are clearly specific to music. Although future experiments could potentially alter this picture, there is currently little unambiguous support for the notion that music is an adaptation.     

What 4′33″ Is

What is John Cage's 4′33″? This paper disambiguates this question into three sub-questions concerning, respectively, the work's ontological nature, the art form to which it belongs, and the genre it is in. We shall see that the work's performances consist of silence (rather than containing environmental sounds), that it is a work of performance art (rather than music), and that it belongs to the genre of conceptual art. Seeing the work in these ways helps us to understand it better, and promises to assuage somewhat the puzzlement and irritation of those who are at first resistant to its charms.     

Going backstage: a psychoanalytically informed study with amateur musicians in adult mental health services

Many mental health service users engage in potentially therapeutic amateur music practice, though the role of this in the maintenance of mental health is largely unexplored. The application of psychoanalytic ideas to music-playing gives suggestions for how this activity could helpfully sublimate distress. For this study, six men who attend adult mental health services and play a musical instrument took part in three unstructured hour-long interviews. The material was analysed with a psychoanalytically informed method. Four inter-related themes emerged: ‘Left on the outside’; ‘Playing and linking’; ‘A beautiful gift to myself’; and ‘Frustrating play’. In the lives of these amateur musicians, music’s role as a transitional object and means of containing distress is explored. There is discussion of the narcissistic function of music and the dynamics around music as an exhibitionistic act. The value of paying attention to music in the life of a patient is considered.     

Information and Communication Technology in the Work of Catholic Priests

ABSTRACT

This article presents data gathered in a doctoral study, the aim of which was to identify information needs and behavior patterns of Croatian Catholic priests for pastoral work. Results of the research focus only on the role of information and communication technology and using electronic sources by the priests in the liturgy and caregiving role. The research was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methodology (print questionnaires and semi-structured interviews). A total of 327 respondents took part in the quantitative study and twenty respondents were interviewed. Although research results showed that many respondents are not very familiar with the information and communication technology, most of them still occasionally use computers for making documents and consult the Internet for finding religious information in pastoral work. Computers and the Internet to a larger degree are used by younger and well-educated priests who have the least experience regarding management of the parishes in major locations. Since the results indicated that parish priests mostly seek religious and secular information on the Internet, it is recommended that the Catholic Church in Croatia offer them increased electronic resources for pastoral work.     

(Spi)ritual interaction in musical activity for infants in the church space – a qualitative analysis

Abstract

Early mother–infant interaction has been seen as very important for the development of religiosity and spirituality. This case study examines one specific musical activity for infants and mothers from the perspective of human interaction. The studied activity is ‘Babysalmesang’, or baby hymn singing (BHS), within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark. Meetings are held in church buildings and include singing hymns and other songs, playing in and exploring the church space. The qualitative empirical data on BHS activities were collected through video recording, observing and interviewing. The initial analysis on the data showed that four types of interaction can be found: mother–infant interaction, interaction between the participants, interaction between the participants and instructors and ritual interaction. BHS can be seen as a space for (spi)ritual interaction. In this context, nurturing spirituality combines with religious elements. Together with mother–infant interaction, also other types of interaction might nurture spirituality in early childhood.