A Brief History of Music and Psychology
Antiquity
In the western (Euro-American) cultural
traditions,
early work on the psychology of music can be seen in the ideas of:
Pythagoras (570--495 BC)
The problem of the Irrational -
The Golden Section (0.618)
Plato - Theory of Forms - The perfect world...... Draws from Pythagoras Carpenter Square
Harmony -Discord in training the mind and the spirit, along with theatre & arts
Middle Ages
Spirituals - Choral (later forms emerge blended with other traditions)
Aesthetics - Along with Emotion and Mind finding beauty and pleasure, goodness.
Modern Foundations
Johan Joseph Lausch
(1751-1825) Published in 1782
Psychologishe Abhandlung uber den Einfluss der Tone und besondere de musik auf
die Seele
Hermann L. F. von Helmholtz (1821-1894)
- expert on Physics and Physiology.
Theory of Colour Vision and Theories on Acoustics
On the sensations of tone as physiological basis for the theory of music(1948).
Carl Stumpf (1848-1930)
While studying at gymnasium (1859-1863) received
his musical training
which he continued to nourish and develop over his lifetime.
Attended Wurzburg university and studied under
Brentano,
took an interest in ethical-religious studies.
Left for Gottingen to study with Lotze and began to take lectures with Wilhelm Weber.
1868 returned to Wurzberg entered ecclesiastical seminary and found the ascetic lifestyle wanting.
1870 back to Gottingen for instructorship in
philosophy. Participated in many "Music Evenings"
Soon met The Leipzig psychophysicists: E.H, Weber and
Gustav Fechner
(arguably the godfathers of psychology).
1875 began work on Tonopsychologie,
thanks in part to the "excellent collection
of acoustical devices at the
institute of Physics."
Examined "sensory judgments" not sensations.
1879 - Prague continued work... got into ethnological literature of music.... 1883 first volume published.....
1884 Spent summer in Halle, progressed on the
seconded volume,
including fusion-experiments using cathedral organ, best source
of constant tone waves.
1889 called to Munich then settled in Berlin and continued to test overtones
1897 began to study prodigies and Kinderpsychologie.
1900 initiated the Archive for Phonographic
Records
- by 1923 became a valuable archive ( 10,000 records ) with special music
from dying cultures.
1903 examined Kruger's work on combination tones upon which his new consonance theory was based.
Continued to work at Berlin until the first world war when he slowed his academic work and collaboration. Resumed work for a few years until retiring in 1921 on his 73rd birthday.
Wilhelm Wundt (1897)
Outlines of
Psychology
Discusses the parallels between sensation and
affective elements
notion of there being 'opposite qualitative
differences' between states and tones.
That in the middle zone one can move between one end and the other imperceptibly and that feelings disappear (as with high and low tones) in this 'zone of indifference'
Unity of creative synthesis of consciousness is central to his system.
Christian von Ehrenfels
(1859-1932)
Gestalt experiences involve the
qualities of more than
merely the sum of the parts. A
whole perception
Music perception - gave rise to studies in transposition (i.e., Happy Birthday).
School of Gestalt Psychology Grew from his work
Background to Contemporary Research
Various important topics and Figures arose from these earlier scientific studies of Psychology & Music
Bartholomew (1899) Relation of Psychology to Music
Meyer, M. (1901) Contributions to a psychological Theory of Music
Lipps (1905) Psychologische Studien (Consonance & Dissonance in Music)
Fisher (1905) Psychology for Music teachers
Bingham (1910) Studies in Melody
Bacon (1922) Effects of Practice on Judgments of absolute pitch
Schoen (1927) The Effects of Music
Swisher (1927) Psychology for the music teacher
Alder (1929) Music Appreciation
Paul R. Farnsworth Ohio State University (BA 1921, MA 1923, PhD 1925), dissertation " Ending Preferences and Apparent Pitch of a Combination of Tones". Published on:
(1930) Short Studies in
Musical Psychology
(1941) Are "Music Capacity" tests more important than "intelligence"
tests in the prediction of the several types of Music Grades
(1958) The social Psychology of Music
Kurth (1931) Musikpsychologie
Petran (1932) An Experimental Study of Pitch recognition
Bugg (1933) Factors Influencing Consonance judgments
Lee (1933) Music and its Lovers, and Empirical Study of Emotional and Imaginative Responses to Music
Matthay (1939) An Introduction to Psychology for Music teachers
Wellek (1939) Typologie der musilbegabung im deutschen Volke
Carl Emil Seashore (1866-1949) 
(1924) A survey of Musical Talent in
the Public Schools...
(1937) Objective Analysis of Musical
Performance
(1938) The psychology of Music
(1947) In search of Beauty in Music
(1956) Measures of Musical talents
manual
Watson, K. (1942) The nature and Measurement of Musical Meanings
Weaver (1943) Studies in Ocular Behavior in Music Reading
Wyatt (1945) Improvability of Pitch discrimination
Meyer, L. (1956) Emotion and Meaning in Music
Cazden (1958) Pythagorus and Aristoxenos reconciled
Ohio
State University Music 829F Bibliography of the History of Music & Psychology
http://csml.som.ohio-state.edu/Music829F/music829F.bibliography.html
Resources
Journal Psychology of Music http://pom.sagepub.com/archive/
Society for Education, music and psychology Research (Sempre) http://sempre.org.uk/
Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_psychology
