Thinking In And About Music

On Milton Babbitt, Schenkerian -- Construction, Cognition, and the Role of the Surface -- The Seam in Babbitt's Compositional Development : Composition for Tenor and Six Instruments -- The Surface and the Series in Composition for Four Instruments -- Poetic Form and Psychological Portraiture in Babbitt's Early Texted Works -- Completeness and Temporality -- Babbitt's Gestural Dialectics -- Afterword. "Anything Vital is Problematical".

"This book is for readers who are insatiably curious about music -- "students of music" in the broadest sense of the word. In this category I include those whose musical concerns are more humanistic than technical, as well as those preparing for careers in music... In a library system of classification, Thinking About Music is apt to be filed under the heading "Music -- Aesthetics, history and problems of," and that is a fair description. " - Preface.

Opinionated and example-filled, this extremely concise and accessible book provides a survey of some fundamental and longstanding debates about the nature of music. The central arguments and ideas of historical and contemporary philosophers are presented with the goal of making them as accessible as possible to general readers who have no background in philosophy. The emphasis is on instrumental music, but examples are drawn from many cultures as well as from Western classical, jazz, folk, and popular music.

Life-long poem project from the Governor General's Award-winning former parliamentary poet laureate.

Thinking about Thinking: Metacognition for Music Learning provides music educators with information, inspiration, and practical suggestions for teaching music. Written for music educators in multiple content areas and grade levels, the book sets forth guidelines for promoting the use of metacognitive skills among music students. Along with presenting an extensive overview of research on the topic, Dr. Benton shows how ideas gleaned from research can be put into daily practice in music classrooms and studios. General music teachers, directors of choral and instrumental ensembles, applied music teachers, future music educators, and music education collegiate faculty will find useful ideas and information here. In the current educational climate where all teachers are required to demonstrate that they encourage higher order thinking among their students, Thinking about Thinking: Metacognition for Music Learning gives music educators the tools they need to accomplish the task.

Sheryl Iott investigates the relevancy of cognitive science to musical development and distills cutting-edge teaching and learning methods for musicians of all skill levels based on these scientific concepts. Filled with over 100 musical examples, this book imparts practical suggestions and advice that anybody can incorporate into their practice.

This textbook enhances preservice and practicing music educators' understanding of ways to successfully engage children in music composition. It offers both a rationale for the presence of composition in the music education program and a thorough review of what we know of children's compositional practices to date. Minds On Music offers a solid foundation for planning and implementing composition lessons with students in grades PreK-12.

Taking a cognitive approach to musical meaning, Arnie Cox explores embodied experiences of hearing music as those that move us both consciously and unconsciously. In this pioneering study that draws on neuroscience and music theory, phenomenology and cognitive science, Cox advances his theory of the "mimetic hypothesis," the notion that a large part of our experience and understanding of music involves an embodied imitation in the listener of bodily motions and exertions that are involved in producing music. Through an often unconscious imitation of action and sound, we feel the music as it moves and grows. With applications to tonal and post-tonal Western classical music, to Western vernacular music, and to non-Western music, Cox’s work stands to expand the range of phenomena that can be explained by the role of sensory, motor, and affective aspects of human experience and cognition.