Musical Intelligence "Music Smart" (Part 2): What is Musical Intelligence?

Gardner indicates that "pitch (or melody) and rhythm: sounds emitted at certain auditory frequencies and grouped according to a prescribed system" are most central to the musical intelligence. He explains that pitch is more important in certain cultures. He discusses "Oriental societies that make use of tiny quarter-tone intervals" (1983). Other cultures (such as sub-Saharan Africa) emphasize rhythm where "rhythmic ratios can reach a dizzying metrical complexity" (1983). Gardner discusses the horizontal and vertical organization of music. Horizontal refers to the "relationship of pitches as they unfold over time." Vertical refers to the "effect of two or more sounds emitted at the same time, giving rise to a harmonic or a dissonant sound." Gardner also states that timbre - the characteristic qualities of a tone, is an important element.

Central Elements - "Cores" of Music

• pitch
• rhythm
• timbre

The musical intelligence is central to human experience. It's the earliest of the intelligences to emerge--even children as young as two months old can sing and match rhythmic structures. And it's closely linked to our other intelligences--we often "feel" music with our bodies and move accordingly, we often "feel" music with our emotions, and cry or laugh accordingly. Indeed, as Howard Gardner writes in Frames of Mind (1983), many scientists believe that...

"if we can explain music, we may find the key for all human thought."

Armstrong states that the musical intelligence is the intelligence of tone, rhythm, and timbre.

Music is universal, crossing cultural borders, playing a significant, unifying role in the earliest history of man throughout the world. The components of the musical intelligence, sensitivity to pitch or melody and rhythm, provide the core elements or set of operations. Musical notation provides a complex separate symbol system. Individuals process musical tones in the right hemisphere of the brain, but with formal training and greater competence, musicians utilize the left hemisphere as well (Gardner, 1983, pp.118-119). The musical/rhythmic intelligence is represented in the brain in both the left and right hemispheres, as well as the limbic system (emotional). The more formal and analytical aspects of music as a system are in the left hemisphere and the figural/experiential aspects are in the right hemisphere (Lazear).

Copyright 2003 by Carla Piper, Ed. D.

Edited by: Carol Roger, 2010

Musical Intelligence "Music Smart"

In introducing musical intelligence, Gardner first stands back and identifies its basic core of objective features: rhythm, pitch, harmony, and timbre, but he soon moves closer to dwell on the mysterious emotional power of music. He then presents several kinds of evidence to support his theory that musical ability functions like an intelligence-- what composers have called "logical musical thinking" and the "musical mind". Musical abilities illustrate why Gardner rejects the simpler split-brain concept of mind. Although most musical abilities are located in the right hemisphere, trained musicians are likely to draw upon the left hemisphere "in solving a task that the novice tackles primarily through the use of right hemisphere mechanisms"

The musical intelligence is more difficult to relate to writing than the others are, especially when you consider that tone of voice is not included in the province of the musical intelligence. But it is no accident that the rhythmic, tonal qualities of words have long been associated with music. Music probably originates in primordial dance, song, and gesture--places where speech and writing may also have deep roots. The earliest poems that we know about appear to have been sung or chanted--perhaps to the accompaniment of a musical instrument. Today, it would be easy assume that clear, straightforward prose was the original method of written expression, and that poetry is an emotional elaboration on prose. The opposite is almost certainly true. The de-poeticizing of prose has been the work of centuries.

Today's emphasis on clear, simple prose floats uneasily upon a sea of older and far deeper styles--the complex cross-currents of poetry, persuasion, and personal song. Some writers find the clean logic of the Strunk and White style overly restrictive. Expressive writing reaches back into the roots of song, tone, dance, and rhythm to draw upon the powerful communicative abilities of what Gardner calls the musical intelligence. I sometimes invent aphorisms to stimulate (and provoke) students; one goes, "You can begin to write better only when you realize that speech is the least recognized of all the forms of music."

The musical intelligence is not limited to poetry and poetic prose. Many writers have celebrated the music of writing.

When I sit down to write, I know that I hear in my head the rhythms of writers I have read and admired. Sometimes, I can even remember which writer's rhythm I am hearing. I think all the good writers hear the music of good writing they've read.

More on Musical Intelligence could be found on Musical Intelligence Part 2.....

from "Writing and Multiple Intelligences," A Working Paper

by Gerald Grow, Ph.D.

School of Journalism, Media & Graphic Arts

Florida A&M University, Tallahassee FL 32307 USA

Available at: http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow

Edited By: Carol Roger, KPLI Jan 2010