MUTH 5325: Music Cognition (Fall 2022; CRN 41469; Meets T/TH 3:30-4:50pm) is the flagship course in the new graduate certificate in Music Cognition. This graduate seminar examines the sensory and cognitive processes involved in composing, performing, and perceiving music. Topics include the perception of ‘low-level’ auditory attributes like pitch and timbre, as well as more ‘high-level’ organizational systems like meter, harmony, and tonality. We also consider whether music elicits emotions, whether it serves an adaptive function in our evolutionary history, and whether the same organizational principles apply for both western and non-western musical traditions.
To those ends, we will complete weekly readings drawn from fields like psychoacoustics, experimental psychology, music theory, and music informatics, but *no formal training in music or experimental psychology is required*. Assignments include written responses to weekly discussion prompts, participation in pilot experiments to be discussed in class, and a research paper on a topic selected by the student(s), and which may present the findings from a pilot study designed and conducted over the course of the semester.
Satisfies the foundational course requirement of the graduate certificate in Music Cognition. Students from the Schools of Music, Psychology, Educational Psychology, Statistics, and Computer Science are especially encouraged to enroll.
