The Neurosciences of Music Perception, Music Making, and Music induced Emotions: A Lecture Concert

Workshop direction: 

Prof. Dr.  Dipl. mus. Eckart Altenmüller & Dr. Teresa Wenhart, CAS Music

Details: 

Making music is one of the most rewarding, however also challenging human activities. To maintain

accuracy of highly skilled movements under rigorous control of the auditory system of players and

listeners is extremely demanding for the sensory-motor networks in the brain. Furthermore, the

anticipation of sound, and emotion and the planning of movements require refined predictive

coding, relying on widely distributed networks of the brain. Emotional processing of music’s inner

worlds, linked to powerful memories, pleasures and pains so masterfully described by Marcel Proust

adds complexity to musical experiences, especially when shared in groups of chamber-music.

In this course we want to experiment and allow the participants practical experiences of making

music enriched with knowledge: students will prepare pieces of music beforehand and bring their

instruments. We will work on a concert program with different chamber music pieces during the

week. This process of practicing and rehearsing will be accompanied by seminars on music induced

brain plasticity, efficiency of different practice strategies, formation of musical memories and on

musicologist analyses of the concert program and finally on communication skills. As an outcome,

the participants will moderate and play a 90 minutes lecture concert at the end of the week.