Of the Nature of that Imitation which takes place in what are called The Imitative Arts

Smith, Adam; Wightman, William P. D.; Bryce, J. C.; Roß, Ina

doi:10.1093/oseo/instance.00042838

Cited by 22 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Smith was a great admirer of the messages of music and wrote about the communication of its poetic massages in his essay Of the Nature of that Imitation which takes place in what are called the Imitative Arts , published in 1777 (Smith, 1777/1982). …”

Section: Coda: the Philosophy Of Human Vitalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Human Nature of Music

Malloch

Trevarthen

2018

Front. Psychol.

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Music is at the centre of what it means to be human – it is the sounds of human bodies and minds moving in creative, story-making ways. We argue that music comes from the way in which knowing bodies (Merleau-Ponty) prospectively explore the environment using habitual ‘patterns of action,’ which we have identified as our innate ‘communicative musicality.’ To support our argument, we present short case studies of infant interactions using micro analyses of video and audio recordings to show the timings and shapes of intersubjective vocalizations and body movements of adult and child while they improvise shared narratives of meaning. Following a survey of the history of discoveries of infant abilities, we propose that the gestural narrative structures of voice and body seen as infants communicate with loving caregivers are the building blocks of what become particular cultural instances of the art of music, and of dance, theatre and other temporal arts. Children enter into a musical culture where their innate communicative musicality can be encouraged and strengthened through sensitive, respectful, playful, culturally informed teaching in companionship. The central importance of our abilities for music as part of what sustains our well-being is supported by evidence that communicative musicality strengthens emotions of social resilience to aid recovery from mental stress and illness. Drawing on the experience of the first author as a counsellor, we argue that the strength of one person’s communicative musicality can support the vitality of another’s through the application of skilful techniques that encourage an intimate, supportive, therapeutic, spirited companionship. Turning to brain science, we focus on hemispheric differences and the affective neuroscience of Jaak Panksepp. We emphasize that the psychobiological purpose of our innate musicality grows from the integrated rhythms of energy in the brain for prospective, sensation-seeking affective guidance of vitality of movement. We conclude with a Coda that recalls the philosophy of the Scottish Enlightenment, which built on the work of Heraclitus and Spinoza. This view places the shared experience of sensations of living – our communicative musicality – as inspiration for rules of logic formulated in symbols of language.

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Section: Coda: the Philosophy Of Human Vitalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Human Nature of Music

Malloch

Trevarthen

2018

Front. Psychol.

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“…Time and measure are to instrumental Music what order and method are to discourse; they break it into proper parts and divisions, by which we are enabled both to remember better what has gone before, and frequently to foresee somewhat of what is to come after: we frequently foresee the return of a period which we know must correspond to another which we remember to have gone before; and according to the saying of an ancient philosopher and musician, the enjoyment of Music arises partly from memory and partly from foresight (Adam Smith [1777Smith [ ] 1982.…”

Section: Make Shared Meaningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Embodied Human Intersubjectivity: Imaginative Agency, To Share Meaning

Trevarthen¹

2009

Cognitive Semiotics

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Embodied Human Intersubjectivity:Imaginative Agency, To Share Meaning Human beings move coherently as individual selves, body and mind adapted to perform complex activities with imagination, knowledge, and skill; perceiving the environment by engaging it with discrimination and care. Human beings live intersubjectively in communitiesl each with the rituals, beliefs, and language of a culture, along with a history of affective relationships and agreed habits for acting in cooperation. These attachments and cultural habits depend upon an ability to sense the intentions, interests, and feelings of other human selves through sympathetic response to motives and emotions as displayed in the shapes and rhythms of body movement: an ability that infants possess from birth. No brain theory explains this 'felt immediacy' of others' life experience, which philosophers of the Scottish Enlightenment accepted as proof that human beings are 'innately sympathetic'. An innate time sense, capacity to 'attune' to the dynamics of body movement, and ability to recognise serial ordering in 'stories' all appear essential. A theory of 'communicative musicality' employs key parameters of pulse, quality of movement, and narrative, applying them to poetry, music, dance, the prosody and rhetoric of language, and the regulation of skillful practices of all kinds. These elements -present in foetal movements and engaged in through joyful intersubjective 'story-telling' from birth -give direct information on how the human brain orchestrates reflex functions to move the body with sensations of grace and efficiency. Their age-related development leads to mastery of language and cultural rituals. They conduct all cognitive functions and all meaning making.One moves with a body and mind adapted to perform many complex activities with knowledge and skill, engaging energetically and sensitively with the environment. At the same time, people also live in communities, each of which has a culture with rituals, beliefs, and language: a history of habits for acting in cooperation, of 'acts of meaning' (Bruner 1990). These cultural habits change one's awareness of the world and of one another's intentions and perceptions. No other species has such powers of mobility, creativity, communication, and cooperation. But these do not mean that human EMBODIED HUMAN INTERSUBJECTIVITY | 7 beings are the best adapted for a secure way of life in the future. Acting together, people also transform their environment. As Alfred North Whitehead observed long ago, humans' intelligent creativity and cooperation may threaten their relationship with nature. Writing about how organisms exist, he said:On the one side there is a given environment with organisms adapting themselves to it…. The other side of the evolutionary machinery, the neglected side, is expressed by the word creativeness. The organisms can create their own environment. For this purpose the single organism is almost helpless. The adequate forces require societies of cooperating organisms. But with such cooperati...

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“…This time range is identified as the "psychological present", the dynamics of which are determined by the actions one is performing now, this instant, and in the "context" known through the seconds of the "immediate" past and future (Husserl, 1964;Pöppel, 2002;Stern, 2004;Varela, 1999). It is the rhythmic time of action in dance and music (Osborne, in press a), in poetry (Turner & Pöppel, 1988), indeed in all the "imitative arts" (Smith, 1777(Smith, /1982.…”

Section: Core "Narrative" Times In Body and Mindmentioning

confidence: 99%

The musical art of infant conversation: Narrating in the time of sympathetic experience, without rational interpretation, before words

Trevarthen¹

2008

Musicae Scientiae

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The human voice, as it is always the best, so it would naturally be the first and earliest of all musical instruments […] it would employ words of some kind or other, pronouncing them only in time and measure, and generally with a more melodious tone than had been usual in common conversation. Those words, however, might not, and probably would not, for a long time have any meaning, but might resemble the syllables which we make use of in sol-faing, or the derry-derry-down of our common ballads; and serve only to assist the voice in forming sounds proper to be modulated into melody, and to be lengthened or shortened according to the time and measure of the tune. This rude form of vocal music, as it is by far the most simple and obvious, so it naturally would be the first and earliest." (Adam Smith, 1777/1982 "Without any imitation, instrumental Music can produce very considerable effects […] by the sweetness of its sounds it awakens agreeably, and calls upon the attention; by their connection and affinity it naturally detains that attention, which follows easily a series of agreeable sounds, which have all a certain relation both to a common, fundamental, or leading note, called the key note; and to a certain succession or combination of notes, called the song or composition. By means of this relation each foregoing sound seems to introduce, and as it were prepare the mind for the following […], which renders the whole more easy to be comprehended and remembered. Time and measure are to instrumental Music what order and method are to discourse; they break it into proper parts and divisions, by which we are enabled both to remember better what has gone before, and frequently to forsee somewhat of what is to come after […] the enjoyment of Music arises partly from memory and partly from foresight." (Emphasis added) (Adam Smith, 1777/1982 15

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Of the Nature of that Imitation which takes place in what are called The Imitative Arts

Cited by 22 publications

References 0 publications

The Human Nature of Music

The Human Nature of Music

Embodied Human Intersubjectivity: Imaginative Agency, To Share Meaning

The musical art of infant conversation: Narrating in the time of sympathetic experience, without rational interpretation, before words

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