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Subject:
From:
James Tobin <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 24 Jan 2000 10:43:47 -0600
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Mats Norrman:

>I wonder; if it now is so that the female brain (in most cases) is
>not successful in composing music;

I assume that the HUMAN brain (in most cases) is not successful (in any
sense) in composing music.  However, some human brains, male and female,
are successful in doing this.

Mats' hypothesis calls for an interpretation of "successful." If it is a
matter of actually producing works that anyone who knows anything about
music will agree are, in fact, music, it is clearly true that some (in
fact many) female brains have functioned successfully this way.  But if by
"successful," what is really meant is "successful with audiences, critics,
musicologists, performers, conservatory faculty, etc." then the category
has shifted from the neurological to the social.  That is a very different
matter, and requires examination of entirely different kinds of data--and
also requires different kinds of judgments.

Jim Tobin

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