In the 20 years since publication of John Sloboda's landmark volume The Musical Mind, music psychology has developed as a vibrant area of research - exerting influence on areas as diverse as music education and cognitive neuroscience. This new book brings together 24 selected essays and reviews written by an internationally acclaimed authority on music and the mind. Chapters are grouped into four main areas of study. These are, cognitive processes (including music reading, memory and performance), emotion and motivation, talent and skill development, and music in the real world (including functions of music in everyday life and culture). The book ends with a newly written chapter on music psychology and social benefits. The book brings together in one place a range of influential writings, whose links to one another provide a compendious overview of a subject that has come to maturity during the author's career, a career which has significantly contributed to the development of the field.
PART A: COGNITIVE PROCESSES ; 1. The psychology of music reading ; 2. Experimental studies of music reading: a review ; 3. The uses of space in music notation ; 4. Immediate recall of melodies ; 5. Cognition and real music: the psychology of music comes of age ; 6. Psychological structures in music: core research 1980-1990 ; 7. Book review of Language, Music and Mind ; 8. Does music mean anything? ; PART B: EMOTION AND MOTIVATION ; 9. Music as a language ; 10. Music psychology and the composer ; 11. Empirical studies of emotional response to music ; 12. Emotional responses to music: a review ; 13. Musical performance and emotion: issues and developments ; PART C: TALENT AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT ; 14. Musical expertise ; 15. Musical ability ; 16. The acquisition of music performance expertise ; 17. Are some children more gifted for music than others? ; PART D: MUSIC IN THE REAL WORLD ; 18. Everyday uses of music ; 19. Music: where cognition and emotion meet ; 20. Music and worship: a psychologist's perspective ; 21. Emotion, functionality, and the everyday experience of music ; 22. The sound of music versus the essence of music ; 23. Assessing music psychology research
