Music Psychology

<p>The first edition of Ernst Kurth’s <i>Musikpsychologie</i> appeared in 1931 and was regarded by contemporaneous psychologists as no less than the foundation for a new systematic approach to the perception and cognition of music. Time has hardly diminished Kurth’s standing as an original scholar with a distinctive point of view. Music theorists both in Europe and North America regard him as an important figure in the history of music theory. Daphne Tan and Christoph Neidhöfer’s first full translation provides English-speaking theorists the opportunity to delve deeper into his ideas. Indeed Kurth’s concerns – listening habits and habituation metaphorical language the limits of memory and the role of the body in music experience to name a few – are shared by many in the field today especially scholars who work at the intersections of music theory psychology linguistics and related disciplines. And while Kurth’s approach lacks the scientific rigour of modern-day empirical musicology <i>Musikpsychologie</i> nevertheless presents a source of testable hypotheses for those working in the area of music perception and cognition. This translation of <em>Musikpsychologie </em>also<em> </em>has the potential to inspire a new generation of composers especially through the topics in the second section (energy force space and matter) and given the inherently interdisciplinary nature of this book and the number of philosophical and scientific sources Kurth incorporates it will appeal to those interested in the history of science and particularly in the emergence of psychology as an academic discipline in the early 20th century.</p>