Music and the Mind

The Musical Mind, published in 1985, was written by the relatively unknown John Sloboda. It made ground-breaking inroads in raising crucial questions relating to music's status as a form of human expression and has become the seminal text in the field of music psychology. The scope of that book was impressive: from music perception to production, embracing topics as diverse as music's origin and the circumstances that encourage its skill acquisition. Musical structure, grouping, and perceptual processing, including memory, were key areas where John Sloboda had made early empirical investigations. Discussion of emotional responses and creative processes were far more inductively written, based on his own personal experiences. The Musical Mind laid a research agenda in asking those crucial 'how' and 'why' questions that have since occupied a growing body of researchers from all over the world.

Following a quarter of a century after that seminal work, Music and the Mind celebrates the life and work of John Sloboda whilst taking stock of where the field of music psychology stands 25 years after The Musical Mind first appeared. It reviews key areas of current research in the field, written by world-leading authors, each making a significant and original academic contribution. Offering a timely review of the field of music psychology in the 21st Century, the contributors to Music and the Mind also reflect on how the field has been significantly stimulated by the influential work of John Sloboda. This book is fascinating reading for students and researchers in music psychology and musicology, as well as music professionals.