Music Cognition Article Index for
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Music Cognition
  CATEGORIES ABOUT MUSIC COGNITION
   
music cognitionmusic cognition
   
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OVERVIEW

Music cognition clearly came to be recognized as a discipline in the early 1980's, with the creation of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition and the journal Music Perception. The field of music cognition focuses on how the mind makes sense of music as it is heard. It also deals with the related question of the cognitive processes involved when musicians perform music. Topics in the field include (but are not limited to):

  • A listener's perception of grouping structure ( Motive s, Phrase s, sections, etc.)

  • Rhythm and meter (perception and production)

  • Key inference

  • Expectation (including Melodic Expectation ).

  • Musical similarity

  • Emotion al response

  • Expressive, musical performance



ACCESSIBILITY


Pieces of music and other works of art are commonly judged on their accessibility, with some feeling that less-accessible works are superior and some considering them inferior. For instance, Serial Music is often valued by its creators and others for its high concentration of information while being criticized by Fred Lerdahl and others for being literally unintelligible.


REFERENCES


Introductory Reading



Intermediate Reading

  • Dowling, W. Jay and Harwood, Dane L. (1986) ''Music Cognition.'' San Diego: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-221430-7.

  • Sloboda, John A. (1985) ''The Musical Mind: The Cognitive Psychology of Music.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-852128-6.



Journal Articles



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