What happens when we listen to music? Why are certain forms pleasing and others not? John Davies was both a psychologist and a talented musician and The Psychology of Music, originally published in 1978, explores the nature of man’s eternal need for, and love of, music. Drawing on current research in psychology and social psychology at the time, he explores the processes beneath this love affair in an easy and fluent style liberally punctuated with amusing and, occasionally, startling examples.
Acknowledgements. Introduction 1. Psychology and Music 2. What is Music? 3. The Musical Present 4. Events of the Past 5. What Makes a Tune? 6. Some Further Aspects of Musical Perception 7. Musical Ability and Musical Aptitude: The Problem of Definition 8. Problems of Measurement 9. Test Material: Pitch 10. Test Material: Memory for Tonal Sequences 11. Consonance and Dissonance 12. Rhythm: Tonality’s Poor Relation 13. Musicians and Instruments 14. Postscript. Bibliography. Index.
Biography
John Booth Davies (1944–2017) Emeritus Professor was both a psychologist and a talented musician. He completed his PhD on the topic of musical ability but combined this with playing piano and trumpet in jazz clubs. He made significant and lasting contributions to each of the diverse fields that took his interest throughout his career. The Psychology of Music was his first book, largely dealing with the cognitive psychology of music, he went on to publish books challenging the dominant way in which addiction is understood. The Myth of Addiction and Drugspeak: The Analysis of Drug Discourse are also available from Routledge.
Reviews for the original edition:
‘… one of the most stimulating and readable texts on the subject to have emerged in recent years’. – The Times Educational Supplement
‘… informative, thoughtful and challenging. It could well be a basic text for university and college study’. – The Times Higher Education Supplement
