The Neuroscience of Bach’s Music: Perception, Action, and Cognition Effects on the Brain

By Eric Altschuler

The Neuroscience of Bach’s Music: Perception, Action, and Cognition Effects on the Brain is a comprehensive study of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music through the lens of neuroscience and examining neuroscience using Bach’s music as a tool. This book synthesizes cognitive neuroscience, music theory, and musicology to provide insights into human cognition and perception. It also explores how a neuroscience perspective can improve listening and performing experiences for Bach’s music.

Written by a physician-neuroscientist recognized for scholarly articles on Bach’s music, this book uses specific examples to explore neuroscience across Bach’s compositions. The book is structured to discuss the brain’s action, perception, and cognition as connected to specific Bach concertos, tones, notes, and performances. Two guest contributors provide insight into exact mathematical, or topologic, and music theoretic aspects of Bach’s music with implications for cognitive neuroscience.

The Neuroscience of Bach’s Music: Perception, Action, and Cognition Effects on the Brain is a vital source for neuroscientists, especially those studying the cognitive effects of music, as well as musicians and students alike.

• Links specific features and unique characteristics of Bach’s music to perceptual and cognitive neuroscience processes
• Requires only an interest in music or basic music training
• Accompanied by a companion website with music examples mentioned in the book

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Feb 7, 2024
• ISBN: 9780443135200

Eric Altschuler

Eric Altschuler, MD, PhD is Associate Chief and Director of Clinical Research in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Metropolitan Hospital and Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York Medical College. Dr. Altschuler is also an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Altschuler is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Brain Injury Medicine, Neuromuscular Medicine and Electrodiagnostic medicine. In addition to clinical work in general PM&R and electro-diagnostics, Dr. Altschuler is a widely published and recognized expert in clinically applied and basic cognitive neuroscience. Dr. Altschuler was the first to report the use of mirror therapy for hemiparesis following stroke and for a combination amputation/orthopedic injury. Dr. Altschuler was the first to publish the use of animal assisted therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) now in wide use for patients across the world.

Book preview

Part One

Prelude

Chapter One Introduction⊛

Abstract

This chapter introduces the book. Perception, action/motor system and cognitive neuroscience aspects and lessons from the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) will be explored in the book.

Keywords

Introduction; Johann Sebastian Bach; Cognitive processes; Cognition; Perception; Motor control; Neural space

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) is considered by many to be the greatest composer ever. An autodidact who was encyclopedic in his understanding, treatment and incorporation of the techniques and works of his predecessors and contemporaries, Bach’s music has served as inspiration and instruction to all composers and musicians who followed him.

Beethoven (1770–1827) performed Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (a collection of preludes and fugues in all 24 keys) as an 11-year-old. A likely apocryphal, but apt story relates that Mozart’s wife asked her husband, why don’t you compose like that? after he played a couple selections from the Well-Tempered Clavier for her. Composer, pianist and organist Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47) led the Bach revival in the 19th century with a performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Brahms (1833–97) used the theme of the last movement of Bach’s cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich as the basis of the final movement of his Symphony No. 4. Master of the twentieth century technique of serial music composition Alban Berg (1885–1955) used the first four notes from Bach’s chorale Es ist genug as the last four notes of the theme of his masterpiece Violin Concerto. The great cellist Pablo Casals (1876–1973) would play one of the six suites for solo cello by Bach to start every morning. It is not only professional musicians and composers that are drawn to Bach’s music. Indeed, Bach was the favorite composer of amateur violinist and physicist Albert Einstein.

Interest in Bach among the general public continues to grow as well. When I did a project freshman year of high school on trumpet parts in Bach, all of Bach’s music had not even been recorded. Today there are multiple sets of recordings of the complete works of Bach with more ongoing including the online All of Bach project from the Netherlands Bach Society which we will hear more about and from later. The night after President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 violinist Isaac Stern (1920–2001) in San Antonio played the Chaconne from Bach’s Partita for Solo Violin in d Minor. Writing in The New Yorker magazine about a performance of Bach’s B minor Mass led by Masaaki Suzuki coming not long after an earthquake in the Tohoku region of Japan in March 2011, Alex Ross noted that mention of the earthquake in the introductory remarks before the concert was not necessary because it was clear that Bach had heard the news in advance.

What is so special about Bach’s music—the that to which Mozart’s wife was referring? Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918–88) said, Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry. Employing a hypothesis driven and data rich approach in this book I will show the cognitive neuroscience basis by which the long pattern threads of small musical fabric woven by Bach centuries on are still able to touch our minds, our hearts and our souls.

After a brief biography of Bach and an introduction to basic neuroscience anatomy, systems and principles we will see how Bach’s music taps into the perception systems of the brain. As well, fascinatingly, we’ll see how the actions required to play Bach’s music not only add to the listening (and performing) experience, but also can teach us about the motor control systems of the brain. Further, we’ll look at examples of how Bach’s music taps into the cognitive processes, structures and networks of the brain. We will even find examples of exact mathematical discoveries Bach made in his exhaustive investigation of musical neural space and cognitive possibilities.

Thus, listening to Bach is not just a highly enjoyable experience, but excitingly a way to explore our brain! In doing so we visit familiar places and some new ones as well. Let’s get started!

Note

The large majority of the musical Examples in this book require only basic music training to understand or even no music training: Typically, only the ability to appreciate simple patterns such up vs down, repeating vs changing notes and the like is needed. Less familiar words and concepts will be printed in ALL CAPS and defined in the text. [The very rare examples that require advanced music theory knowledge will be indicated in or set off by square brackets.]

I give the 19th century derived catalog numbers for Bach’s pieces, BWV numbers (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, 2023) Bach works catalogue), but I will typically put them in parentheses after the name of the piece as, of course, these numbers were not known to Bach.

Often, I will denote musical pitches by capital letters: e.g., C, C#, D, E-flat, …, B-flat, B. If the specific octave of a pitch is particularly important or relevant, I will use the convention as in Fig. 1.1 to denote pitches. Hear these notes in Audio 1.1.

There is audio content at this location that is not currently supported for your device. The caption for this content is displayed below.

Audio 1.1 Four octave scale.

Also for reference typical rhythmic values are shown in Fig. 1.2: The TIME SIGNATURE Equation indicates that each measure has four beats and that a quarter note gets one beat. So, the first measure in the top line of Ex. 1.2 consists only of a WHOLE NOTE which gets four beats. The second measure has two HALF NOTES, each of which lasts for two beats. The third measure in the line has four QUARTER NOTES each lasting one beat. The four measure has eight EIGHTH NOTES, each eighth note lasting for half a beat. The fifth measure has sixteen SIXTEENTH NOTES, in four groups, with each sixteenth note lasting for a quarter of a beat. A note with a dot lasts half again as long as the same note without the dot. So, for example, the first measure in the second line contains a DOTTED HALF NOTE lasting 1.5*(length of half note) = 1.5* (2 beats) = 3 beats, and a quarter note to complete the measure. The second measure in the second line consists of DOTTED QUARTER NOTES each lasting 1.5*(length of a quarter note) = 1.5* (one beat) = one and a half beats and eighth notes lasting a half a beat. The last measure in the second line has four DOTTED EIGHTH NOTES each lasting 1.5*(length of an eighth note) = 1.5* (half a beat) = three-quarters of a beat with each dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth note (which lasts for one quarter of a beat).

Fig. 1.1

Fig. 1.1 Ex. 1.1 Pitch convention naming. Notes two octaves below middle c are denoted by capital letters, lower case letters for the next octave, primes are used for the octave of middle c (c’), two primes for the next octave, etc. (Public domain.)

Fig. 1.2

Fig. 1.2 Ex. 1.2 Rhythmic note values. Rhythmic note value reference. See text for discussion. (Public domain.)

Reference

Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis, 2023 Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis. 2023.

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⊛ This book has a companion website hosting complementary materials. Visit this URL to access it: https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals/book-companion/9780443135194

Chapter Two Background and overview of Johann Sebastian Bach⊛

Abstract

The basic facts and events of the life of Johann Sebastian Bach (b. Eisenach, Germany March 21, 1685, d. Leipzig July 20, 1750) are given. Bach is the greatest composer, harpsichordist, organist and organ tester ever. He also was a husband, father, violinist, choral director, scholar and teacher. Possible psychological effects of life events on Bach’s music are discussed as are influences of such on the perceptual and cognitive effects Bach created in his music.

Keywords

Johann Sebastian Bach; Wilhelm Friedemann Bach; Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach; Genealogy; Orphan; Maria Barbara Bach; Anna Magdalena Bach; Ancestors; Brother; Prolific; Family tree; Learning

Two wives, 20 children, Lüneburg, Arnstadt, Mühlhausen. Six Brandenburg Concertos, two volumes of the Well-Tempered Clavier (Altschuler, 1994), St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, Mass in B Minor. Organist, harpsichordist, violinist, violist, singer. Two hundred cantatas, 350 chorales, 6 Partitas, 6 English Suites, 6 French Suites. Six Suites for Solo Cello, Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Directing choirs, directing chamber ensembles, teaching music, teaching Latin. Weimar, Cöthen, Leipzig. Husband, father, musician, composer. Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685–1750. What a Life!

If only one piece written by Bach had survived, he would still probably be considered the greatest composer ever, the tapestry of that piece being woven, as physicist Richard Feynman said Nature herself does, brilliantly out of the smallest units. Bach was not just the greatest composer ever, but also a harpsichordist, organist and organ tester. He taught his students and his sons, including Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (1710–84) and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–88) whose music well into the 19th century was more highly regarded than their father’s. The Old Man influenced all composers ever since including Mozart and Beethoven (Chapter 1), Brahms (Chapters 1 and 18) and Schoenberg and his students (Chapters 21 and 22) and still teaches all of us today.

The basics facts and events of Bach’s life are listed in Table 2.1. It’s hard not to think that being orphaned at 9 years old deeply affected him. After the death of his parents Bach went to live with his older brother Johann Christoph Bach (1671–1721) an organist in Ohrdruf. There JS Bach must have been exposed to the organ works of German and other masters such as Johann Jakob Froberger (1616–67) and Johann Pachelbel (1653–1706) who had been Johann Christoph Bach’s teacher.

Table 2.1

In 1703 Bach was appointed court musician in Duke Johann Ernst III of Weimar’s chapel. Bach’s reputation as an organist must have spread quickly as he was invited to inspect the new organ and give the inaugural recital at the New Church in Arnstadt about 30 km (19 miles) southwest of Weimar. Bach never left his native land, but during his life he traveled and lived far and wide across Germany (Fig. 2.1). In the winter of 1705 Bach traveled 250 miles on foot from Arnstadt to Lübeck to hear the music and study with the great and famous organist and composer Dietrich Buxtehude (1737–07). Records show (Snyder, 1986), that even with a fast route, it took Bach 2 weeks to walk to Lübeck. After arriving he stayed for 3 months. So, like eager graduate students and postdocs to this day, Bach was not entirely forthcoming with his employers in Arnstadt when originally requesting a 4 weeks leave.

Fig. 2.1

Fig. 2.1 Map of Bach’s Germany. (B. Altschuler, used with permission.)

After working as organist and church musician and composer in Weimar for nearly a decade and then as a court composer mostly of instrumental music for Prince Leopold in Cöthen, Bach applied for the job of Cantor (Kapellmeister) in Leipzig. He got the job but only after first choice Georg Philipp Telemann (1681–1767) and second choice Christoph Graupner (1683–1760) turned it down.a It certainly was a great hire! What followed in just the next 5 years were 5 cycles of weekly cantatas totaling nearly 150 cantatas in all, the St. John Passion, the St. Matthew Passion and so much more. Composer Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) said that the stricter the commission, the freer I became. As a town employee at Leipzig and earlier in Weimar and Mühlhausen, Bach did not get specific commissions for his Church cantatas. (He did write secular cantatas for occasions such as town council inaugurations.) The weekly librettos may have served as his commissions, much like Chaucer brought his audience with him in the form of the pilgrims listening to each other’s Canterbury Tales. Bach took the one-dimensional texts and produced music with its incredible 2D, 3D and 4-dimensional effects (see Chapters 14, 15, Fig. 27.3).

Bach was clearly proud of his name and in quite a number of cases used various alphanumeric codes to sneak his name into compositions. (See Chapter 17.) He was similarly justifiably proud of his musical family and in 1735 commissioned a genealogy (David & Mendel, 1966, pp. 202–211; Fig. 2.2) and family tree with six generations of Bach family musicians (JS Bach in the fifth generation) going back to Veit Bach (d. 1619).

Fig. 2.2

Fig. 2.2 Bach musician family tree. All the Bachs shown in the family tree were musicians including, of course, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) (fifth generation) and his four musical sons Wilhelm Friedemann (1710–84), Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714–88), Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732–95) and Johann Christian (1735–82). Positions and affiliations omitted in some instances. Also not shown is a branch of the tree and another line of Bach musicians who were cousins of JS Bach. (B. Altschuler, used with permission.)

Later in life Bach turned to more complex, some reflective contrapuntal pieces such as the Goldberg Variations (1741, BWV 998; see Chapter 17), Book Two of the Well-Tempered Clavier (c. 1742, BWV 870–893; Altschuler, 1994), the Musical Offering (BWV 1079) consisting of 10 canons, 2 RICERCARS (old style FUGUES (Altschuler, 1994), see Chapter 11) and a trio sonata based on a Royal Theme written in 1747 after a visit by Bach to King Frederick II (the Great) of Prussia in Potsdamb (see Chapter 26) and the Art of the Fugue (?1742–?1749, BWV 1080). In the last year or two of his life Bach assembled and adapted from his own choice of Hall of Fame pieces to create the Mass in B Minor (1748–49, BWV 232; Chapter 28). (The Kyrie and Gloria of the Mass in B Minor was based on a version first performed by Bach in 1733 in Dresden, then as now the capital of Saxony.)

There have been biographies of Bach going back to Forkel’s (Forkel, 1802) and Spitta’s (Spitta, 1873) in the 19th century. A good recent biography looking at Bach’s life through the perspective of Bach as a scholar is Christoph Wolff’s Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician (Wolff, 2000).

Johann Sebastian Bach, what a life! Now we turn to how neuroscience can help us better appreciate perceptual and cognitive effects in Bach, produce better performances of Bach’s music and see what Bach can teach us about the brain!

References

Altschuler E.L. Bachanalia: The essential Listener’s guide to Bach’s well-tempered clavier, preface by Stephen Jay Gould. Little, Brown & Co; 1994.

David and Mendel, 1966 David H.T., Mendel A., eds. The Bach reader. W.W. Norton & Co; 1966.

Forkel J.N. Ueber Johann Sebastian Bachs Leben, Kunst und Kunstwerke. Johann Sebastian Bach: His life, art, and work. (C. S. Terry, Trans.) https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35041. 1802.

Snyder K.J. To Lübeck in the steps of J.S. Bach. Musical Times. 1986;127(December):672–677.

Spitta P. Das wahre Leben des Johann Sebastian Bach. The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach. Breitkopf & Härtel; 1873.

Wolff C. Johann Sebastian Bach: The learned musician. W.W. Norton Inc. & Co; 2000.

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⊛ This book has a companion website hosting complementary materials. Visit this URL to access it: https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals/book-companion/9780443135194

a Tom Brady who has won more Super Bowls (seven) than any other player in US National Football League history was drafted in the 6th round with the 199th pick. That means each team had five chances to select him and passed. The quarterback with the second most NFL championships (two Super Bowl victories and three NFL Championships before the Super Bowl was established), Bart Starr, almost exactly as Brady was selected with the 200th pick in the 17th round of the 1956 draft. (In 1957 there were only 12 teams compared to the 31 when Brady was drafted in 2000.) Outside linebacker and defensive end Charles Haley, with five Super Bowl victories the only player besides Brady with more than four, was drafted in the fourth round of the 1986 draft.

b and also his son Carl Philipp Emanuel in Berlin.

Chapter Three Basics of the brain and perception⊛

Abstract

Basics of brain neuroanatomy, neurophysiologic correlates of brain functions such as movement, language and hearing are introduced as are very basics about the human auditory system and overtones. Also discussed and assessed are methods to study the neuroscience of Bach’s music. Brain lesion studies will probably not be helpful as no brain injury or stroke patient has been found to have a Bach-opathy or Bach agnosia. Furthermore, lesion analysis shows that many brain areas contribute to music perception and these can vary from individual to individual. Functional neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is also not likely to be too helpful in studying Bach given its low temporal resolution and hard to validate spatial resolution for cognitive studies. One technique with the potential and the resolution to study perceptual and even cognitive aspects of Bach’s music is psychophysics.

Keywords

Neuroanatomy; Functional neuroimaging; fMRI; Psychophysics; Brain lesion studies; Human auditory system; Overtones; Beats; Cognitive neuroscience; Perception

Before we study Bach and the brain, we need to learn some basics about the brain. Fig. 3.1 shows the lobes of the cerebral cortex and some other subcortical structures. Some functions subserved by these lobes and structures are given in Table 3.1. Fig. 3.2 shows primary speech and motor areas. The functions of these brain regions were originally determined by lesion studies. That is, for example, patients with a brain injury or stroke affecting the left (right) motor cortex are found to have right (left) hemiparesis or a lesion to Broca’s (Wernicke’s) area results in expressive (receptive) aphasia. (The left motor cortex is shown in Fig. 3.2. Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are on the left side of the brain in ∼98% of right-handed individuals and ∼70% of left-handed individuals.)

Fig. 3.1

Fig. 3.1 Lobes of the brain. See text for functions of the various lobes. (By BruceBlaus - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31118589.)

Table 3.1

Fig. 3.2

Fig. 3.2 Primary motor, speech and other cortical areas . (CC BY 3.0, By Blausen.com staff (2014). Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014. Wiki Journal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436. Own work.)

A number of questions naturally arise:

1.Where is the music area? It turns out that there isn’t one music area, rather music perception is distributed throughout the brain, and furthermore these can vary from person to person. See, for example (Grimault et al., 2014; Hyde et al., 2008; Judd et al., 1983; Peretz et al., 2001, 2009; Peretz & Zatorre, 2005; Shapiro et al., 1981; Zatorre & Salimpoor, 2013) and refs. therein.

2.Where is the thinking area? Where in the brain do we do our thinking? While, as just discussed, there are brain areas for movement, sensation, vision, hearing and speech, thinking areas are not so clearly defined or demarcated. The frontal lobes are involved in certain EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS such as initiation and planning, but do these make up thinking per se? Philosophical questions about thinking aside, we will see that the multitudinous features and aspects of Bach’s music likely engage many different parts of the brain, something which must have been most appealing to