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?
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
