Psychology of Music by Carl E. Seashore

Despite being written in 1938, this remains a classic text for musicians who want an overview of what it is they do as a musician along with practical advice. Highly recommended. I discuss some of the contents on this site. What is musical talent? How can you develop it?

Psychology of Music by Carl E. Seashore

Seashore explains that there are a multiplicity of musical talents. He identifies 10 aptitudes necessary for the performance of music. How do we learn music? Seashore explains the science behind these questions but more importantly he sets out practical and clear ways to use this knowledge.

Table of Contents

Page Preface

List Of Illustrations

1. The Musical Mind

The sensory capacities - Musical imagery, imagination, and memory. Musical intelligence - Musical feeling - Musical performance The meaning of this analysis

2. The Musical Medium

Musician, music, listener - Characteristics of the sound wave - Frequency: pitch - Musical aspects of pitch intonation - Intensity: loud - ness - Musical aspects of loudness - Duration: time - Musical aspects of time - - Wave form: timbre - - Musical aspects of tonal timbre - The musical performance score

3. The Science Of Music

Scope of the subject - The performer, the music, the listener - General principles of science - Basic principles in the psychology of music.

4. A Musical Ornament, The Vibrato

Nature of the vibrato - An example of the vocal vibrato - An example of instrumental vibrato - Frequency of occurrence, extent and rate of vibratos - Normal illusions which make for beauty of vibrato - The nature of beauty in the vibrato - - Ear training for the vibrato - Use and abuse of the vibrato - The vibrato, good. bad, indifferent, and ideal

5. Pitch: Frequency

The nature of pitch - Limits of audible pitch - Pitch discrimination - Absolute pitch - The significance of individual differences - Normal illusions of pitch - Subjective tones - The first difference tone Other difference tones - Summation tones - Subjective harmonics - The dif - ference tone a substitute for a low fundamental - Pitch performance

6. Loudness: Intensity

The role of intensity - Sensitivity or hearing ability Deterioration with age: presbycousis - Children's hearing - Discrimination: the sense of intensity - Number of audible differences in loudness - Motor capacities - Intensity characteristics of musical tones - Amplification of sound

7. Duration: Time

Nature of the perception of time - Discrimination: the sense of time - Normal illusions of time - motility

8. Timbre: Wave Form

The nature of timbre - Harmonic analysis - Synthetic tones - Timbre discrimination: the sense of timbre

9. Tone Quality: Sonance

Analogy in moving pictures - Types of sonance - Sonance in attack, release, and port amento - The inside of a vocal tone - What is in a name ? - Sonance in speech - Nature of the vowel in music and speech - The problem of formant regions - Dependence of harmonic structure upon fundamental pitch and total intensity in the vowel - Conversational vs. audience voice

10. Consonance

The nature of consonance - The psychological approach - Six psycho - logical problems - Order of merit in each of four criteria - Order of rank on three criteria combined - The sense of consonance

11. Volume

Spatial factors - Quantitative factors - Qualitative factors - Temporal factors - Subjective factors - Carrying power

12. Rhythm

The nature of rhythm - What rhythm does - Individual differences in musical rhythm - Psychology of rhythm

13. Learning In Music

12 rules for efficient learning in music | (to the pupil) - Some specific applications (to the instructor)

14. Imagining In Music

The analogy in sculpture and painting - Comparison of musicians and scientists - R. Schumann - Mozart - Berlioz - Wagner - Supplementary imagery - Living in a tonal world - The development of imagery - Individual differences in mental imagery

15. Thinking In Music

The issue - The nature of musical intelligence - How musicians rate

16. Nature Of Musical Feeling

Determined by capacities - Intensified by pursuit - Characterized by intelligence and motor skills - Transfer to other situations

17. Timbre Of Band And Orchestral Instruments

The bassoon - The clarinet - The French horn - The baritone horn - The cornet - The slide trombone - The flute - The oboe - The tuba

18. Violin

The violin performance score - The violin phrasing score Comparison of the performance of two players - The pitch factor - The intensity factor - The temporal aspect - The timbre aspect - Intervals: the problem of scales

19. Piano

Piano touch - The piano camera - The piano performance score Section of Clropin Nocturne No. 6 - Similarity in statement and restatement - Consistency of interpretation - Asynchronization of chords

20. Voice

Singing - The tonal aspect: pitch - The dynamic aspect: intensity - The temporal aspect: time Time and stress: rhythm - The qualita - tive aspect: timbre and sonance

21. Principles Of Guidance In Music

The problem - Paving the way - Reminiscent incidents - Principles of measurement and guidance Sources of error in guidance procedures

22. Measures Of Musical Talent

What can we measure? - Principles involved in the elementary battery of measures of musical talent - Criticisms of this approach - Purpose of the phonograph records and supplementary procedures - Reliability - The basis for rank order - The uses of these measures

23. Analysis Of Talent In A Music School

Origin of the Eastman School experiment - Plan and purpose of the experiment - Classification - Representative profiles - Stability of the classification - Retests of adults and children - Bearing on success in the college music course

24. Analysis Of Talent In The Public School

The Lincoln experiment - The Rochester service - Procedure in the guidance program - The training of teachers and supervisors - The organization of a guidance program for the public school

25. The Inheritance Of Musical Talent

The nature of the inheritance of musical talent - Basic approaches now available Possible ways of organizing investigation - The naturalist's point of view

26. Primitive Music

Musical anthropology through phonophotography - Negro songs

27. The Development Of Musical Skills

Control of pitch intonation - Control of intensity - Control of time and rhythm - The rhythm meter - Training for precision in rhythmic action - Control of timbre - - - General significance of specific training for skills

28. Musical Esthetics

Approaches to musical esthetics - Esthetics as a normative science. The musical message

Appendix
Bibliography
Index To Authors Mentioned Or Quoted In The Text
Index To Musicians
Index To Compositions
Subject Index