Music and intelligence connection

[Marsellus Wallace]

[Kayenneh]

Ah, Mozart! As a pianist, I adore him! His pieces can be simple enough to play through just like that, but even the simpler ones have so much nuance and potential for complexity, so it never gets boring playing one of his pieces. Then we have the more technically demanding pieces, hard to play, but once you get a hang of them, the way your fingers dance over the keys is as easy as breathing. He may have been cuckoo to boot, but darn, that man could compose music!

[Alex K]

I could never really get into mozart, apart from the "Mozart" requiem, because superficially most of his output seemed terribly aimed at pleasing the ear rather than conveying emotions or ideas, sometimes almost a series of cliches. Of course any music theorist will tell me that's because I'm an idiot and too shallow to appreciate the full complexity, and that's ok. Baroque just tickles.my mind more with its obvious mathematical structure, and romantic and late romantic stuff like Bruckner conveys the grand emotions for me more than early viennese classic. I have a special place in my heart for Beethoven , being at the transition.

I don't entirely subscribe to the correlation of intelligence and appreciation of complex music, but mainly because I find the concept of iq and intelligence deeply flawed. The music preference is a sign of a kind of intelligence if you will.

[Ben Davis]

[Kayenneh]

Baroque just tickles.my mind more with its obvious mathematical structure

I think TEGH will agree with you, but once again from a pianists POV, I cannot. Bach.. I hate Bach! Firstly, he made most of his music for organists and harpsichord players, so it does not translate well to the piano. Secondly, there is no phrasing, no pauses to catch your breath, you just plow through the music, hoping you'll come out on the other side in one piece. Thirdly, I had a Bach piece in my repertoire, when I got my 3/3 diploma, and due to nerves I messed it up and got barely no points for it. So yeah, even though I can understand the magnificence of baroque music, don't force me to play it!!

[thesummerqueen]

There are people who have mental disabilities who are nonetheless brilliant at music. Intelligence is too difficult to quantify to say there's a definite correlation.

[Kayenneh]

There are people who have mental disabilities who are nonetheless brilliant at music. Intelligence is too difficult to quantify to say there's a definite correlation.

I think that was the gist of Ben's post, it's merely a facet of intelligence. Though on an anecdotal level, the all of the genius level people I know, have also been brilliant musicians.

[thesummerqueen]

I think that was the gist of Ben's post, it's merely a facet of intelligence. Though on an anecdotal level, the all of the genius level people I know, have also been brilliant musicians.

Every intelligent person I know has gained comfort in artistic expression in some capacity. I think it's 1) a relaxation thing and 2) an expression of their willingness to expand their brains in all directions. It's not limited to music.

[Esquilax]

It always kinda terrifies me when people start talking technical about music, or about "conveying emotions and ideas," through it, because when I'm writing, my sole thought is literally "this might sound good." So I guess in some ways, I'm a musical simpleton.

Even when I was physically capable of playing, I'd learn anime theme songs rather than classical pieces. I was just having fun with it.

'Course, that's all off the table now since I hurt my hand. Now I'm just a composer ramming inappropriate electric guitar riffs into orchestrations.

[Minimalist]

I think that was the gist of Ben's post, it's merely a facet of intelligence. Though on an anecdotal level, the all of the genius level people I know, have also been brilliant musicians.

Every intelligent person I know has gained comfort in artistic expression in some capacity. I think it's 1) a relaxation thing and 2) an expression of their willingness to expand their brains in all directions. It's not limited to music.

Interesting experiment, Summer. Let's give an IQ test to a symphony orchestra audience and compare it to a test given to fans at a wrestling match and see what the results are!