Music and Embodied Cognition: Listening, Moving, Feeling, and Thinking (Musical Meaning and Interpretation)

Taking a cognitive approach to musical meaning, Arnie Cox explores embodied experiences of hearing music as one that moves us both consciously and unconsciously. In this pioneering study that draws upon 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." "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." -- Publisher's description "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."--Résumé de l'éditeur

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.

Cover -- Music and Embodied Cognition -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part 1: Theoretical Background -- 1. Mimetic Comprehension -- 2. Mimetic Comprehension of Music -- 3. Metaphor and Related Means of Reasoning -- Part 2: Spatial Conceptions -- 4. Pitch Height -- 5. Temporal Motion and Musical Motion -- 6. Perspectives on Musical Motion -- Part 3: Beyond Musical Space -- 7. Music and the External Senses -- 8. Musical Affect -- 9. Applications -- 10. Review and Implications Appendix I. Mimetic Subvocalization and Absolute Pitch -- Appendix II. Levels of Abstraction among Metaphors -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index