Psychology Of Music

PSYCHOLOGY OF MUSIC BY CARL E. SEASHORE, PH. D., LL. D., BC. D., D. LITT. McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK AND LONDON To my comrades in research for the last forty years this volume is affectionately dedicated. npms volume is dedicated to my comrades in research, professors J. and students, for the last forty years. I am writing as a spokes man for them all, attempting to present in high lights the new approaches developed during this period. This involves the right to draw freely from more than one hundred publications emanating from the group. Wherever possible I have named the person pri marily responsible for the contribution but the text embodies facts which in large part are common stock in the laboratory. In doing the overhead work for all these years, it has been difficult to separate my own ideas from the ideas of collaborators because our policy has been to share ideas with the utmost gener osity. In the interest of condensation and clarity, I have interpreted and classified as much as is consistent with the purpose and, there fore, have not used quotation marks extensively. It is difficult to give proper acknowledgment to all the persons and sources represented. All authors of publications from which substantial units are drawn are mentioned in the text with a super script number which refers to the corresponding number in the bibliography. The sources of illustrations are indicated in the text. Acknowledgment to authors and publishers for permission to use material is herewith gratefully extended. Owing to the nature of the situation, I have counted upon many of my collaborators to read and criticize the manuscript in whole or in part both from the point of view ofscience and from the point of view of music. The following note from the Music Educator Journal, September, 1937, IB self explanatory In a series of reports from the laboratory-studio for the Psychology of Music, Carl E. Seashore has presented to Journal readers specimens of scientific findings dealing with various phases of the psychology of music. Appearing in the October issue of the Journal will be the tenth in a series, which will deal with the problem of the tempered scale a x PREFACE The Psychology of Musical Talent, 1 7 published by Silver Burdett Company, in 1919, is a monograph which marks a ne v vantage ground in the psychology of music. It covers a restricted field in which it has permanent value and should, therefore, not be revised, but supplemented. In the present volume, I have aimed to avoid duplication of that work to which this is a logical sequel. Concentration in this field of work has been favored by a gen erous attitude on the part of the University of Iowa toward this project and through a series of generous fellowships provided by Mr. George Eastman, the National Research Council, the Guggen heim Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation. Through a special interest in this subject and such generous financial support, it has been possible to maintain a continuous project through trained investigators, working on a unified program for a generation. The purpose of this book is to stimulate and guide the student of music in scientific observation and reasoning about his art. It is, therefore, not a summary of all the known facts on any subject, but rather a series of flashes illustrating the scientific approach from as many angles as space and material permit in anelementary textbook. Since the book is written for beginners, no technical description of apparatus or method is given except in most elementary general principles. Material for the student to work upon is, however, furnished abundantly. My attitude throughout may be expressed in the invitation, Come with me into the laboratory-studio for the psychology of music and see how the study of science of the art of music works. As in my other text books the motto has been Not psychology but to psychologize. This book has been many years in the making...