Research Catalog

Title

Music, tendencies, and inhibitions : reflections on a theory of Leonard Meyer / Renée Cox Lorraine.

Author

Lorraine, Renee Cox, 1952-

Publication

Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 225 pages : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

Leonard B. Meyer has proposed that when musical tendencies or expectations are inhibited by musical ambiguity or the unexpected, those inhibitions and their subsequent resolutions are likely to be provocative or engaging. This book will explore the relevance of this theory to music and various other disciplines, and to psychological and natural processes. Each chapter consists of two parts: a presentation and consideration of an aspect of Meyer's theory, and a more associative or rhapsodic section of "Reflections" on this aspect. The book will focus on Meyer's aesthetic rather than his music-theoretical proclivities, and is intended for academics and students in various fields as well as educated non-academics. The music scene is fluctuating, Meyer suggests, in that new and original styles or techniques are continuously emerging or developing on a small scale; it is static in that many of these developments seem unrelated, and are not likely to be grasped or progress as a whole. It will be posited that this theory foreshadowed and reflects important ideologies of contemporary culture, including postmodernism.

Subject

• Meyer, Leonard B
• Music > Philosophy and aesthetics
• Musikästhetik

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction: Tendencies and Inhibitions -- Emotion and Meaning in Music -- Information Theory -- Implication -- Inhibition on a Cultural Level: A Fluctuating Stasis.

ISBN

• 0810838907
• 9780810838901

LCCN

2001020815

OCLC

• ocm46473777
• 46473777
• SCSB-14701446

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library