Composition and Cognition: Reflections on Contemporary Music and the Musical Mind

by Fred Lerdahl

In Composition and Cognition , renowned composer and theorist Fred Lerdahl builds on his careerlong work of developing a comprehensive model of music cognition. Bringing together his dual expertise in composition and music theory, he reveals the way in which his research has served as a foundation for his compositional style and how his intuitions as a composer have guided his cognitively oriented theories. At times personal and reflective, this book offers an overall picture of the musical mind that has implications for central issues in contemporary composition, including the recurrent gap between method and result, and the tension between cognitive constraints and utopian aesthetic views of musical progress. Lerdahl’s succinct volume provides invaluable insights for students and instructors, composers and music scholars, and anyone engaged with contemporary music.

159 pages, Paperback

Published November 5, 2019

Reviews

[FL · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those interested in music-language connections (as in Bernstein's Unanswered Question Lectures), this book is probably the most recent exposition. For a book by an academic, it's delightfully readable. For both specialists and non-specialists, it provides a clear exposition of the worldview of a rather notable (and a bit controversial) musical thinker.

The text is a transcription of lectures, and takes that leisurely tone, being a bit too informal even for me at times (the one-line disses of other authors are a bit much). Ultimately, I can't agree with Lerdahl's conclusions---he wants his music to be cognizable, but in the end it really just isn't.