Perception and cognition of music

by Stephen McAdams

ISBN: 9780198939177

Published: 2024-11-28

Perception and Cognition of Music: The Sorbonne Lectures presents revised and updated materials delivered in four distinguished lectures at the Université Paris-Sorbonne and the Université de Montréal, originally published in French. The book bridges the fields of music psychology, music theory, and music analysis by way of a consideration of several aspects of music listening through the lens of cognitive psychology. Auditory grouping processes play a role in organizing the continuous incoming sensory information into events, streams of events, and segments of streams that form musical units. Perceived properties of events and streams depend on how the incoming information is organized. Special attention is given to timbre as an understudied musical parameter, which can be a strong structuring force and form-bearing element in music through orchestration practice. The development of systems of abstract knowledge built on different musical parameters within a given culture focuses...