Book announcement--Temperley, Cognition of Musical Structures

[Dan Ellis <dpwe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear List -

I was sent the enclosed announcement of a new book on music cognition
for forwarding to the list.  I hope it is of interest.

-- DAn Ellis <dpwe@ee.columbia.edu> http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~dpwe/
   Dept. of Elec. Eng., Columbia Univ., New York NY 10027 (212) 854-8928

------- Forwarded Message
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2002 16:07:25 -0500
From: Jud Wolfskill <wolfskil@MIT.EDU>
Subject: book announcement--Temperley

I thought readers of the Auditory List might be interested in this
book.  For more information please visit http://mitpress.mit.edu/0262201348

The Cognition of Basic Musical Structures
David Temperley

In this book David Temperley addresses a fundamental question about music
cognition: how do we extract basic kinds of musical information, such as
meter, phrase structure, counterpoint, pitch spelling, harmony, and key
from music as we hear it? Taking a computational approach, Temperley
develops models for generating these aspects of musical structure. The
models he proposes are based on preference rules, which are criteria for
evaluating a possible structural analysis of a piece of music. A preference
rule system evaluates many possible interpretations and chooses the one
that best satisfies the rules.

After an introductory chapter, Temperley presents preference rule systems
for generating six basic kinds of musical structure: meter, phrase
structure, contrapuntal structure, harmony, and key, as well as pitch
spelling (the labeling of pitch events with spellings such as A flat or G
sharp). He suggests that preference rule systems not only show how musical
structures are inferred, but also shed light on other aspects of music. He
substantiates this claim with discussions of musical ambiguity,
retrospective revision, expectation, and music outside the Western canon
(rock and traditional African music). He proposes a framework for the
description of musical styles based on preference rule systems and explores
the relevance of preference rule systems to higher-level aspects of music,
such as musical schemata, narrative and drama, and musical tension.

David Temperley is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the Eastman
School of Music.

7 x 9, 360 pp., 211 illus., ISBN 0-262-20134-8

Jud Wolfskill
Associate Publicist
MIT Press
5 Cambridge Center, 4th Floor
Cambridge, MA  02142
617.253.2079
617.253.1709 fax
wolfskil@mit.edu

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