Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation by David Huron (paperback)
The psychological theory of expectation that David Huron proposes in Sweet Anticipation grew out of the author's experimental efforts to understand how music evokes emotions. These efforts evolved into a general theory of expectation that will prove informative to readers interested in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology as well as those interested in music. The book describes a set of psychological mechanisms and illustrates how these mechanisms work in the case of music. All examples of notated music can be heard on the Web.
Huron proposes that emotions evoked by expectation involve five functionally distinct response systems: reaction responses (which engage defensive reflexes); tension responses (where uncertainty leads to stress); prediction responses (which reward accurate prediction); imagination responses (which facilitate deferred gratification); and appraisal responses (which occur after conscious thought is engaged). For real-world events, these five response systems typically produce a complex mixture of feelings. The book identifies some of the aesthetic possibilities afforded by expectation, and shows how common musical devices (such as syncopation, cadence, meter, tonality, and climax) exploit the psychological opportunities. The theory also provides new insights into the physiological psychology of awe, laughter, and spine-tingling chills. Huron traces the psychology of expectations from the patterns of the physical/cultural world through imperfectly learned heuristics used to predict that world to the phenomenal qualia we experienced as we apprehend the world.
Preço: 27,00 €
Music and the Mind by Anthony Storr (Paperback)
"Writing with grace and clarity...he touches on everything from the evolution of the Western tonal system, to the Freudian theory of music as infantile escapism, to the differing roles o the right and left brain in perceiving music."
WALL STREET JOURNAL - Drawing on his own life long passion for music and synthesizing the theories of Plato, Schopenhauer, Stravinsky, Nietzsche, Bartok, and others, distinguished author and psychologist Anthony Storr illuminates music's deep beauty and timeless truth and why and how music is one of the fundamental activities of mankind.
Preço: 12,00 €
Music, the Brain and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Robert Jourdain (Paperback)
This book's title is dead-on accurate. By constructing a framework for understanding music from the wave up (the first four chapters cover sound, tone, melody, and harmony, for example), Jourdain explains music's underlying structure and reviews the physics and neuroscience needed to understand current research in musicology. As a music novice, I greatly appreciated his clear, entertaining and erudite explanations of music theory and history; as a biologist and neuroscientist, his sections on anatomy and neurology were the ideal size, presenting just enough information to engage any reader, but avoiding, as few popular scientific texts do, the traps of over- and under-explanation. Jourdain's experience as a science writer is evident (this is his sixth book on science and technology) and I'm pretty confident that one trained in music would be as uniquely and equally satisfied with his presentation of the topic as I am with his presentation of "my" discipline..
Preço: 20,00 €
The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do without it Philip Ball - (Hardcover)
“Which is your baby’s favourite composer: Mozart, Beethoven or Bach?” asks Philip Ball, tongue in cheek, in this wonderful account of why music matters, why it wrenches our souls and satisfies our minds and sometimes drives us crazy. Ball makes fun of the so-called “Mozart effect”: the belief that playing your infant carefully selected chunks of classical music will make them brainier. These parents are treating music like “a CD-sized Mozart pill” — as if part of Mozart’s genius could infiltrate baby’s brain as he drools in his high chair, nodding along to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.....
Preço: 25,00 €
Introduction to the Psychology of Music, by Geza Revesz - (Paperback)
Comprehensive introduction looks at physical and physiological bases of sound, hearing, and tone; elements of musical tone; theory of intervals; consonance and dissonance; the sense of pitch; musical talent; development and inheritance of musical ability; musical accomplishments of the deaf; the origins of music; the relationship between aesthetics and the psychology of music.
Preço: 18,00 €
Emotion and Meaning in Music, by Leonard Meyer,(Paperback)
"Composers and performers of all cultures, theorists of diverse schools and styles, aestheticians and critics of many different persuasions are all agreed that music has..."
Preço: 21,90 €
