London (music, Carleton College) takes a psychological perspective on the human ability to perceive musical meter, and the uses and limits of this ability. Musical meter is explored in the context of performance and in examples from many musical styles and cultures. This second edition contains an updated bibliography of current research in rhythm perception and production, rhythmic theory and analysis, and the history of music theory. There is a new chapter on the neuroscience and development of rhythm, and new discussion of recent work in metric representations and non-isochronous meters, especially in non-Western music. Because the book includes b&w musical notation, basic ability to read music is useful. The book's audience includes musicians, musicologists, and music theorists, as well as psychologists and cognitive scientists. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Our sense that a waltz is "in three" or a blues song is "in four with a shuffle" comes from our sense of musical meter. Hearing in Time explores the metric aspect of our musical experience from a psychological point of view. Musical meter is subject to a number of fundamental perceptual and cognitive constraints. These constraints are the cornerstones of Hearing in Time's account of musical meter. Hearing in Time also takes into account the fact that listening to music, like many other rhythmic activities, is something that we do a lot. It also approaches meter in the context of music as it is actually performed, with nuances of timing and dynamics, rather than as a theoretical idealization.
Hearing in Time's approach to meter is not based on any particular musical style or cultural practice, and it discusses musical examples from a wide range of musical styles and cultures--from Beethoven and Bach to Brubeck and Ghanaian (Ewe) drumming. In taking this broad approach a number of fundamental similarities between a variety of different metric phenomena--such as the difference between so-called simple versus complex or additive meters - become apparent.
Requiring only a modest ability to read a musical score, Hearing in Time is written for musicians, musicologists, and music theorists, as well as psychologists, linguists and cognitive scientists who are interested in rhythm and meter.
