Composition and Cognition - Reflections on Contemporary Music and the Musical Mind

About the author

Fred Lerdahl is Fritz Reiner Professor Emeritus of Musical Composition at Columbia University. He is widely recognized both for his chamber music and orchestral compositions and for his writings in music theory and the cognitive science of music.

 

Summary

In Composition and Cognition, renowned composer and theorist Fred Lerdahl builds on his careerlong work of developing a comprehensive model of music cognition. Bringing together his dual expertise in composition and music theory, he reveals the way in which his research has served as a foundation for his compositional style and how his intuitions as a composer have guided his cognitively oriented theories. At times personal and reflective, this book offers an overall picture of the musical mind that has implications for central issues in contemporary composition, including the recurrent gap between method and result, and the tension between cognitive constraints and utopian aesthetic views of musical progress. Lerdahl’s succinct volume provides invaluable insights for students and instructors, composers and music scholars, and anyone engaged with contemporary music.

Additional text

"Fred Lerdahl’s engaging new book is an example of something music theory might do more of: letting composers to talk seriously and personally about the ideas animating their music."

Product details

• Authors: Fred Lerdahl, Lerdahl Fred
• Publisher: University Of California Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2019
• EAN: 9780520305090
• ISBN: 978-0-520-30509-0
• No. of pages: 160
• Series: Ernest Bloch Lectures
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > Music theory; Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups, MUSIC / History & Criticism, MUSIC / Instruction & Study / Theory, MUSIC / Individual Composer & Musician, Theory of music & musicology, Music reviews & criticism, Musicians, singers, bands and groups, Composers and songwriters, Music reviews and criticism, Theory of music and musicology