Musical Forces: Motion, Metaphor, and Meaning in Music

Musical Forces: Motion, Metaphor, and Meaning in Music
ISBN-10
0253005493
ISBN-13
9780253005496
Category
Music
Pages
390
Language
English
Published
2012-01-31
Publisher
Indiana University Press
Author
Steve Larson

Description

Steve Larson drew on his 20 years of research in music theory, cognitive linguistics, experimental psychology, and artificial intelligence—as well as his skill as a jazz pianist—to show how the experience of physical motion can shape one’s musical experience. Clarifying the roles of analogy, metaphor, grouping, pattern, hierarchy, and emergence in the explanation of musical meaning, Larson explained how listeners hear tonal music through the analogues of physical gravity, magnetism, and inertia. His theory of melodic expectation goes beyond prior theories in predicting complete melodic patterns. Larson elegantly demonstrated how rhythm and meter arise from, and are given meaning by, these same musical forces.

Similar books