Sweet Anticipation demands careful attention from music scholars who still believe that experimental psychology is too primitive to speak to their concerns. In unpacking the process of expectation, long understood to play a crucial role in our emotional response to music, David Huron makes a powerful case for a musicology that is empirically informed and statistically based. Even those who question whether musical cognition is as strongly determined as he suggests will be challenged by his questioning of basic theoretical assumptions and won over by his continual emphasis on pleasure as a goal, perhaps the goal, of musical experience. -- William Benjamin, Professor of Music, University of British Columbia The quintessence of the French mind -- precision, concision, elegance -- as it should be, Pascal rather than Derrida. Everyone who knows William Thomson knows that he is not only a great economist but also a master expositor, be it in his papers and books or in his talks. In this book, he shares his remarkable know-how with us young and not-so-young economists. -- Maurice Salles, Professor of Economics, Universite de Caen, and Coordinating Editor, Social Choice and Welfare David Huron draws on evolutionary theory and statistical learning to situate the particular issue of musical expectation within the study of human expectation in general. The result is a widely knowledgeable and engagingly written book that will serve as a landmark in the cognitive science of music. -- Fred Lerdahl, Fritz Reiner Professor of Music, Columbia University
David Huron is Distinguished Professor in the School of Music and in the Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences at the Ohio State University; he is author of Sweet Anticipation- Music and the Psychology of Expectation (MIT Press).
A richly detailed theory of how and why the audience has particular
expectations and emotions.... A fascinating journey into the inner
workings of music and how it tickles the human mind.
*Nature*
Sweet Anticipation... in its range, rigour and insights constitutes
an astonishing achievement. Although it announces itself as a book
about expectation in music, it goes well beyond what that might
imply and is more like a broad and encompassing theory of music
perception and cognition, with expectation as the central
concept.
*Music Analysis*
Having worked on the question of musical expectancy for a number of
years myself reading David Huron's recent book has been, for me, a
real treat. My interest in this topic does, however, make me a
harsh critic of work on this topic. It is within such a context,
then, that I praise this book. Quite simply, Sweet Anticipation is
excellent.
*Philosophical Psychology*
David Huron's superb book Sweet Anticipation: Music and the
Psychology of Expectation ... is an exceptional contribution to the
field of music cognition and represents a clear advance in our
understanding of the role of expectancy in musical experience. As a
cognitive psychologist, I find Huron's proposals for expectancy
mechanisms and their possible evolutionary origin convincing and
novel. Indeed, throughout the book musical issues are connected
with human psychology in a way that reflects a deep and nuanced
understanding of both disciplines.... On the whole, Huron provides
an extraordinarily rich analysis of the phenomenon of musical
expectation and provides a persuasive account of its psychological
sources. Sweet Anticipation is without question one of the most
exciting pieces of scholarship to emerge in the past decade, and
should be read by anyone with a serious interest in the psychology
of music.
*Empirical Musicology Review*
Sweet Anticipation is a brilliant work that will continue to
inspire for many years to come.
*Psychology of Music*
Huron's ability to show the link between the biologically driven
need to acquire knowledge for survival and the phenomenology of
'hypermetric anticipation', 'tonal syncopation', and other such
specific, highly technical musical procedures is one of the book's
greatest triumphs.
*Music & Letters*
This is a remarkable publication that reflects a keen vision. It
casts the meaning of music within a broad, scientific scenario.
*Empirical Musicology Review*
One of the strengths of Sweet Anticipation is that it is an
ambitious work that offers a Big Theory. Huron draws together
insights from disparate fields such as music theory, evolutionary
theory, neurobiology, and cognitive science into a theory that is
coherent, parsimonious, and powerful.
*Music Perception*
By persuasively putting forward a general theory of expectation by
way of music, Huron's book will not only draw the attention of
specialists in other fields to the work done by music theorists but
also establish a benchmark for the future role of music in
psychological research. For his theory implicitly demonstrates the
significance of music not merely as a heuristic tool but also as a
fundamental and highly symptomatic aspect of mental life.
*Music & Letters*
This really is a very significant book on our responses to, and
understanding of, music—and one that has a disarming ability to
simplify previously tangled debates without becoming simplistic....
Anyone interested in understanding the extraordinary range and
dynamic character of listeners' responses to music will find a huge
amount here to think about, some very entertaining anecdotes and
examples, and inspiring model of how to tackle a complex subject
with care, rigour, great scholarship and an awareness of the power
of simplicity.
*Music Analysis*
Sweet Anticipation should be required reading for all composers and
musicologists.... This is certainly the best music theory book that
I've read in many, many, years.... Highly recommended!
*Amazon.com*
Apart from anything else, David Huron's book provides a wealth of
fascinating insights amassed throughout 20 years of research in the
field.
*Musicae Scientiae*
Huron writes with humour and humanity.
*Psychology of Music*
I can't put the book down! A must read for anyone who has read
Meyer, Narmour, or Lerdahl. An exploration of human expectation as
exemplified through a rigorous and systematic understanding of
music cognition.
*Auditory.org*
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