Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
X's refreshingly iconoclastic insert notes insist that this performance of the Brahms' Second
reveals an 'intrinsic unease' stemming from Horowitz's 'emperamental mismatch' with both
Toscanini and the work itself.
The way he reinforces this message is to write in terms of conflict, violence and
tension whilst using harmoniousness as a foil. It would be inappropriate to go into
this in overmuch detail so a few examples must suffice. The text is full of conflict
metaphors:
Iconoclastic insert notes
...
contentiousness clouded the recording session
...
one of the
most arresting recordings of this
...
it's controversial
...
calls for dolce and espressivo are
rebuffed
...
deploy every available tool to scratch out any signs of tenderness
...
barbed
attacks
...
gaunt tone
...
contestatory treatment of accompaniments
...
lethal lightness of
a well-aimed stiletto
...
you're compelled to go along
...
And at the other end of the emotional scale it has a significant number of metaphors
of harmony and pleasure:
the succulence of Brahms's harmonies (passages that are poignant in other hands)
...
the
sweetness of his melodies
...
signs of tenderness from this normally bighearted score
...
the music's lyricism
...
These examples are typical of the written genre and indeed of the spoken discourse.
Modelling this must involve simplification thus we chose to work in terms of mes-
sages being conveyed between exclusive private worlds where the only common
factor is the source of the experience and its comparators.
13.5
The Initial Model
We wanted to show how the reactions of an Actor B to a piece of music, as perceived
by Actor A, might be quantified to enable processing into an internal model of B held
by A. Such a process will involve a form of
negotiation
and
learning
that requires the
use of tropic communication by both Actors. It should be noted that the weightings
we apply are not seen as 'real' mental artefacts that exist within the human brain
(although they might). Any measures we use are simply convenient representations
of emotional intensity within the computational model.
We start by describing how the processes are modelled.
Figure
13.2
will illustrate the situation. This diagram shows an external world
in the central rectangle that consists of six metaphors for artistic objects, in this
case musical performances (events) of pieces (objects) called Triangle Music, Circle
Music etc.
In this world Actors A and B listen to Triangle Music and then A modifies its
3
internal interpretation of Actor B
s description from its own perception of the music.
3
The English term 'his', as is the traditional syntactic convention, could have been used here
where it is considered gender neutral. However I have used 'it' since an actor in this context is a
programmed artifact.
