Music in the Human Experience

Music in the Human Experience: An Introduction to Music Psychology, Second Edition, is geared toward music students yet incorporates other disciplines to provide an explanation for why and how we make sense of music and respond to it—cognitively, physically, and emotionally. All human societies in every corner of the globe engage in music. Taken collectively, these musical experiences are widely varied and hugely complex affairs. How did human beings come to be musical creatures? How and why do our bodies respond to music? Why do people have emotional responses to music? Music in the Human Experience seeks to understand and explain these phenomena at the core of what it means to be a human being.

New to this edition:

Expanded references and examples of non-Western musical styles

Updated literature on philosophical and spiritual issues

Brief sections on tuning systems and the acoustics of musical instruments

A section on creativity and improvisation in the discussion of musical performance

New studies in musical genetics

Greatly increased usage of explanatory figures

Table of Contents

Part I: Introducing Music Psychology

Chapter 1. What is Music Psychology?

Chapter 2. Philosophical Issues in Music Psychology

Chapter 3. How We Came to be Musical

Chapter 4. Music Around the World and Across Time

Part II: Perceiving, Understanding and Responding to Music

Chapter 5. Acoustical Foundations of Music

Chapter 6. Musical Hearing

Chapter 7. Psychoacoustics and the Perception of Music

Chapter 8. Music Cognition

Chapter 9. Music and the Brain

Chapter 10. Bodily Responses to Music

Chapter 11. Musical Emotions

Part III: Being Musical

Chapter 12. The Musical Person

Chapter 13. Music Performance

Chapter 14. Music Teaching and Learning

Chapter 15. Music and Health

Chapter 16. Music in Social Contexts