Musical Perceptions

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: For a person who loves classical music but is not a musician, I particularly enjoyed the book. I found the introductions to each division and summaries after each contributor extremely helpful. Aside from the content of the text, I very much liked the Picasso cover.

Rating:
Summary: good articles, but some are less accesible than others.
Review: The breakdown of Musical Perceptions is very well done in this collection of essays. Beginning with a detailed philisophical essay concerning the meaning of music in terms of behavioral and emotional affect, it continues on to describe psychological and cognitive elements which are more or less for the 'knowledgable' reader. The first part of the book is largeley devoted to describing different perspectives on how we percieve the meaning of music. Philisophical, linguistical, and behavioural aspects are all discussed. For anyone writing an essay on the perception or 'variance' of music this text forms a good overview of the different trends in music research and thought. Well annotated and referenced, but not for the casual non-musician.