Comparing Notes

April 1, 2018

Ockelford (director, Applied Music Research Ctr., Roehampton Univ., London; In the Key of Genius) asks at the beginning of his highly erudite text: How does music work "or make sense," and what does it mean? In five chapters that cover the answers in painstaking detail, the author explains how music is structured, through such devices as pitch, repetition, rhythm, inversion, and transposition. Drawing on developmental psychology, he explores how listeners perceive or make sense of it all. Examples include both classical and popular music, among other topics, such as the listening experience, defining originality in music, how children experience music, and atonal music. Interestingly, Ockelford maintains, "words can never ... do justice to the immediate sensation of musical sounds" or to the feelings they arouse in us. It would be difficult to imagine a more thoroughgoing exposition of this subject, backed by abundant illustrations and reference to the works of other scholars. The author admits that despite his exhaustive coverage, he is reporting only what is "known" about music, indicating that there is still much more to learn. VERDICT Because of its often highly technical nature, this book will be of especial interest to those already knowledgeable about the subject.--Edward B. Cone, New York

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