Thomas Willis's "Musical Ear" and the Perception of Musical Pleasure : Neurophysiology and Auditory Sensibility during the Scientific Revolution in England

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  • トマス・ウィリスの「音楽的な耳」と音楽の快の知覚 : 科学革命期の英国における神経生理学と聴覚的感性
  • トマス ・ ウィリス ノ 「 オンガクテキ ナ ミミ 」 ト オンガク ノ カイ ノ チカク : カガク カクメイキ ノ エイコク ニ オケル シンケイ セイリガク ト チョウカクテキ カンセイ

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Abstract

Thomas Willis (1621-1675) was an English physician and anatomist who was famous for pioneering the neuroscience. He worked on the intracerebral causes of musical faculty or the "musical ear" in his book Cerebri anatome ("The Anatomy of the brain," 1664). According to Willis, the musical memory is stored in the cerebellum, which takes charge of the involuntary movements that are indispensable for life support, and is released by singing. A melody that has been heard once can be sung correctly without recalling because of this structure of musical memory. Later, Thomas Salmon, a contemporary musical theorist, asserted that the hearing capable of recognizing musical pleasure was different from the ordinary hearing that perceives general sound. Further, he referred to Willis's theory concerning the cause of that special hearing. In the eighteenth century, Salmon's idea was seconded by Francis Hutcheson, who supposed that it was an "internal sense," not an external sense (i.e., ordinary hearing), that perceived the pleasure of musical beauty. The "internal sense," which was identified with "taste," had a lot in common with Willis's "musical ear" in terms of the immediacy of judgment. Therefore, Willis's view on hearing could be understood as a possible explanation of musical "taste."

Journal

  • Aesthetics

    Aesthetics 63 (1), 133-144, 2012

    The Japanese Society for Aesthetics

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