Book Launch

The Marvin Duchow Music Library and Prof. Stephen McAdams invite you to a book launch celebrating his new publication, Perception and Cognition of Music: The Sorbonne Lectures (Oxford University Press, 2024). 

The event will be held in the Music Library on Friday, April 11, 2025, from 6pm to 8pm. Registration/RSVP

Perception and Cognition of Music: The Sorbonne Lectures presents a revised and updated edition of a book originally published in French in the MusicologieS series, which is based on distinguished lectures at the Université Paris-Sorbonne (2009) and Université de Montréal (2010). It bridges music psychology, theory, and analysis by exploring music listening through cognitive psychology. Auditory grouping processes help organize sensory information into musical units, while timbre, an often-overlooked parameter, is highlighted as a structuring element in orchestration. The development of abstract systems of musical knowledge focuses on cognitive processing of pitch systems and their role in forming hierarchical event structures. Finally, the temporality of music is examined through a collaborative project involving a composer, psychologists, and musicologists in creating The Angel of Death by Roger Reynolds and exploring its affective impact in a live-concert experiment. Each chapter ends with reflective elements to encourage a transdisciplinary approach to music scholarship. 

Please join us in launching the publication of Perception and Cognition of Music: The Sorbonne Lectures. During a program beginning at 6:30pm, Stephen will speak about and read from his new book, and he will then be interviewed by Chris Paul Harman in what promises to be a phantasmagoric dialogue. Refreshments will be served.