The Spheres of Music: A Gathering of Essays

by Meyer, Leonard B.

• ISBN13: 9780226521534
• ISBN10: 0226521532
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

Leonard B. Meyer's writings on the theory, history, perception, and aesthetics of music have inspired and provoked generations of readers. The Spheres of Music makes available a selection of his most important essays (originally published between 1974 and 1998). Gathering them together in one volume not only enables the essays to "converse" with and illuminate each other, but also allows Meyer to revise, recant, and comment on the ideas they present. With the same sensitive insight and searching intelligence he has exhibited throughout his career, Meyer transcends the boundaries that so often separate fields of inquiry. The Spheres of Music joins music theory to history, history to culture, culture to aesthetics, aesthetics to psychology, and psychology back to theory. In so doing, the book highlights the complex interrelationships at the heart of the creation, comprehension, and history of music. Diverse and adventurous, The Spheres of Music presents an intriguing and impressive collection of Meyer's work. "Ever since the publication of his Emotion and Meaning in Music . . . I have considered Leonard B. Meyer one of the keenest thinkers about music among us."--Winthrop Sargeant, The New Yorker

Author Biography

Leonard B. Meyer is the Benjamin Franklin Professor of Music, emeritus, at the University of Pennsylvania

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
I Prelude
Concerning the Sciences, the Arts--AND the Humanities	3	(52)
II Music, Perception, and Process
Grammatical Simplicity and Relational Richness: The Trio Mozart's G-Minor Symphony	55	(71)
Process and Morphology in the Music of Mozart	126	(31)
Melodic Processes and the Perception of Music (with Burton S. Rosner)	157	(32)
III Music, Culture, and History
Exploiting Limits: Creation, Archetypes, and Style Change	189	(37)
Nature, Narture, and Convention: The Cadential Six-Four Progression	226	(36)
A Pride of Prejudices; or, Delight in Diversity	262	(19)
IV Postlude
A Universe of Universals	281	(24)
Index	305