Table of Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Prelude Insights from the Blind 1
1 How Does Music Work? 10
Heinrich Schenker: The Radical Conservative 11
Positivism and Postmodern Approaches 19
Music Analysis Using Linguistic Models 25
Explaining Music in its Own Terms: Arnold Schoenberg 35
Degrees of Repetition 38
Intervals and Transposition 44
Coda 49
2 The Zygonic Conjecture 52
Derek 55
Building a New Theory of How Music Works 61
Connections between Connections 72
Frameworks of Pitch 81
Rhythm and Metre 96
Timbre, Loudness and Location 108
Coda 113
3 How We Construct Musical Meaning 121
Structure in Music and Syntax in Language 122
Responding to Sound 123
Structure and Content in Music 124
Meaning in Language 128
Meaning in Music: The Art of Simplicity in Sound 132
Complexity and the Problem of 'Greatness' 146
Other Forms of Musical Meaning 158
Defining Music 165
What isn't Music? 168
Coda 177
4 We Are All Musical 180
From Music Theory to Developmental Psychology 183
The Sounds of Intent Project 191
Musicality in Blind Children and Those on the Autism Spectrum 205
Exceptional Musical Ability: Savants 216
Coda 227
5 Composing, Performing and Listening 230
The Challenge of Understanding Composers' Work 231
Defining Originality in Music 245
What Constitutes a Piece of Music? 264
Understanding the Listening Experience 275
The Problem of 'Atonal' Music 287
Coda 295
Postlude - Notes Compared 302
Further Reading 322
List of Figures 327
Index 333
