Musical Forces - Motion, Metaphor, and Meaning in Music (Hardcover)

Steve Larson draws on his 20 years of research in music theory, cognitivelinguistics, experimental psychology, and artificial intelligence -- as well as hisskill as a jazz pianist -- to show how the experience of physical motion can shapeone's musical experience. Clarifying the roles of analogy, metaphor, grouping, pattern, hierarchy, and emergence in the explanation of musical meaning, Larsonexplains how listeners hear tonal music through the analogues of physical gravity, magnetism, and inertia. His theory of melodic expectation goes beyond prior theoriesin predicting complete melodic patterns. Larson elegantly demonstrates how rhythmand meter arise from, and are given meaning by, these same musical forces.