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Music, Cognition, and Computerized Sound: An Introduction to Psychoacoustics by Perry R.CookeReview by: Francis RumseyNotes, Second Series, Vol. 56, No. 4 (Jun., 2000), pp. 980-981Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/899868.
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NOTES,
June
2000
OTES,
June
2000
virtue
of his
nineteenth-century
childhood
-Pablo
Casals)
seem
suspiciously
self-
conscious,
as if
intended
to
add
historical
weight. While it would be naive to expect
anything
new
here,
the authorial voice
is often overwhelmed
by
its
old,
familiar
sources.
Fortunately,
Kenneson
does
not
linger;
the
later entries
are more com-
pelling.
One
of the book's
most
refreshing
fea-
tures
is the inclusion
of lesser-known
fig-
ures.
Kenneson's
chapter
on his teacher
Horace
Britt,
a
colleague
of
Casals,
is an
in-
sightful
account
of
a
turn-of-the-century
cello
prodigy.
Indeed,
the author's
observa-
tions about
string playing
in
general
are im-
bued
with
an
attractive
empathetic
energy.
Also,
in
the
case
of
Britt,
much
of
the
infor-
mation is
drawn from
personal
interviews.
Kenneson's
presentation
of
his own
inter-
view material
is
admirably
self-effacing,
and
throughout
the
book,
these
firsthand
encounters
invariably
provide
the liveliest
entries. The
interview
with
former
boy
so-
prano Bejun
Mehta,
which
serves
as an
epi-
logue,
is a case
in
point.
All musical prodigies must eventually
face
the loss
of their
special
identity.
The
boy soprano's
situation
is
doubly poignant,
for
as
he
ages,
his
vehicle
of
expression
dis-
appears.
Fortunately,
Mehta
reveals
an
ex-
traordinary
talent
not
only
for
music,
but
for
personal
reinvention.
He
has had adult
careers
as
a
cellist
and a
Grammy
Award-
winning
record
producer,
and he has re-
cently
emerged
as
a
much-acclaimed
countertenor.
It
is
Mehta's
account
of
the
failure
of
his
childhood
voice,
however,
that stands out in the context of this book,
for moments
of failure
in Musical
Prodigies
are
as rare
as
the
quality
of
prodigy
itself.
It is
telling
that
all of Kenneson's
prodi-
gies
established
highly
successful
musical
careers
as adults.
Musical
Prodigies
cele-
brates
the
perilous, glorious
journeys
of
prodigies
in
music
(p.
12),
and
in
the
spirit
of
celebration,
there
is no mention
of
travelers
along
this
road who
did
not com-
plete
the
trip.
Many
readers,
especially
those from the general-interest audience,
will
find satisfaction
and
pleasure
in
these
stories
of what
appear
to be
unusually
graced
lives.
Those who
hope
to discover
the commonalities-outside
of
exceptional
musical
talent-that
provided
a
platform
for all
of this success
will
have to
look else-
virtue
of his
nineteenth-century
childhood
-Pablo
Casals)
seem
suspiciously
self-
conscious,
as if
intended
to
add
historical
weight. While it would be naive to expect
anything
new
here,
the authorial voice
is often overwhelmed
by
its
old,
familiar
sources.
Fortunately,
Kenneson
does
not
linger;
the
later entries
are more com-
pelling.
One
of the book's
most
refreshing
fea-
tures
is the inclusion
of lesser-known
fig-
ures.
Kenneson's
chapter
on his teacher
Horace
Britt,
a
colleague
of
Casals,
is an
in-
sightful
account
of
a
turn-of-the-century
cello
prodigy.
Indeed,
the author's
observa-
tions about
string playing
in
general
are im-
bued
with
an
attractive
empathetic
energy.
Also,
in
the
case
of
Britt,
much
of
the
infor-
mation is
drawn from
personal
interviews.
Kenneson's
presentation
of
his own
inter-
view material
is
admirably
self-effacing,
and
throughout
the
book,
these
firsthand
encounters
invariably
provide
the liveliest
entries. The
interview
with
former
boy
so-
prano Bejun
Mehta,
which
serves
as an
epi-
logue,
is a case
in
point.
All musical prodigies must eventually
face
the loss
of their
special
identity.
The
boy soprano's
situation
is
doubly poignant,
for
as
he
ages,
his
vehicle
of
expression
dis-
appears.
Fortunately,
Mehta
reveals
an
ex-
traordinary
talent
not
only
for
music,
but
for
personal
reinvention.
He
has had adult
careers
as
a
cellist
and a
Grammy
Award-
winning
record
producer,
and he has re-
cently
emerged
as
a
much-acclaimed
countertenor.
It
is
Mehta's
account
of
the
failure
of
his
childhood
voice,
however,
that stands out in the context of this book,
for moments
of failure
in Musical
Prodigies
are
as rare
as
the
quality
of
prodigy
itself.
It is
telling
that
all of Kenneson's
prodi-
gies
established
highly
successful
musical
careers
as adults.
Musical
Prodigies
cele-
brates
the
perilous, glorious
journeys
of
prodigies
in
music
(p.
12),
and
in
the
spirit
of
celebration,
there
is no mention
of
travelers
along
this
road who
did
not com-
plete
the
trip.
Many
readers,
especially
those from the general-interest audience,
will
find satisfaction
and
pleasure
in
these
stories
of what
appear
to be
unusually
graced
lives.
Those who
hope
to discover
the commonalities-outside
of
exceptional
musical
talent-that
provided
a
platform
for all
of this success
will
have to
look else-
where.
The
prodigy's
transition
from
child
wonder
to fulfilled
adult
musician remains
as
mysterious
and individual
as the
prodi-
gies themselves.
JOHN
MCGINNESS
State
University
of
New
York t
Potsdam
Music,
Cognition,
and
Computerized
Sound: An
Introduction
to
Psycho-
acoustics. Edited
by Perry
R. Cooke.
Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT
Press,
1999.
[xi,
372
p.
+
1
compact
disc.
ISBN
0-
262-03256-2.
$50.]
Music,
Cognition,
and
Computerized
ound
is a substantial
new book
from
MIT Press.
Edited
by
Perry
R.
Cooke,
it contains
chap-
ters contributed
by
a
number
of authors
who
have been
associated
with
Stanford
University's
Center
for
Computer
Research
in Music
and Acoustics
(CCRMA),
includ-
ing
well-known
figures
such
as Max
Mathews,
Roger
Shepard,
andJohn
Pierce,
as well
as
Cooke
himself. As
the editor
indi-
cates
in
the
introduction,
the book
takes
its inspiration from a course that has been
taught
at CCRMA
since the
eighties,
and
the
chapters
are structured
so that
each
might
serve
as the basis
of
a
lecture
(al-
though
some
are
much
shorter
than
oth-
ers).
There are
twenty-three
chapters
in all
-a convenient
number for
a two-semester
course
with
weekly
lectures,
exercises,
and
examinations-followed
by suggested
labo-
ratory
exercises,
questions
and
problems,
and a list of
the
tracks contained
on
an ac-
companying
compact
disc.
The
disc con-
tains
many
examples
of the
phenomena
described
in
the
text,
together
with
some
C-code
and
MIDI
files for
those
wishing
to
experiment
with
the
stimuli
themselves
using
a
computer.
The
approach
is
refreshingly
simple,
yet
well
informed
by
research
in
the
field.
The
contributions
are accessible
to the
inter-
ested
musician
having
little
prior
knowl-
edge
of acoustics
or
psychoacoustics.
None-
theless,
the
technical
level
varies
somewhat
from chapter
to
chapter,
and
a modicum
of
technical
and
mathematical
knowledge
would
certainly
be
helpful
for
understand-
ing
some
of the
material;
the
Fourier
trans-
form
equations
appearing
suddenly
in
chapter
4,
for
example, might
frighten
the
unwary.
The
contributors
vary
in
style:
where.
The
prodigy's
transition
from
child
wonder
to fulfilled
adult
musician remains
as
mysterious
and individual
as the
prodi-
gies themselves.
JOHN
MCGINNESS
State
University
of
New
York t
Potsdam
Music,
Cognition,
and
Computerized
Sound: An
Introduction
to
Psycho-
acoustics. Edited
by Perry
R. Cooke.
Cambridge,
Mass.: MIT
Press,
1999.
[xi,
372
p.
+
1
compact
disc.
ISBN
0-
262-03256-2.
$50.]
Music,
Cognition,
and
Computerized
ound
is a substantial
new book
from
MIT Press.
Edited
by
Perry
R.
Cooke,
it contains
chap-
ters contributed
by
a
number
of authors
who
have been
associated
with
Stanford
University's
Center
for
Computer
Research
in Music
and Acoustics
(CCRMA),
includ-
ing
well-known
figures
such
as Max
Mathews,
Roger
Shepard,
andJohn
Pierce,
as well
as
Cooke
himself. As
the editor
indi-
cates
in
the
introduction,
the book
takes
its inspiration from a course that has been
taught
at CCRMA
since the
eighties,
and
the
chapters
are structured
so that
each
might
serve
as the basis
of
a
lecture
(al-
though
some
are
much
shorter
than
oth-
ers).
There are
twenty-three
chapters
in all
-a convenient
number for
a two-semester
course
with
weekly
lectures,
exercises,
and
examinations-followed
by suggested
labo-
ratory
exercises,
questions
and
problems,
and a list of
the
tracks contained
on
an ac-
companying
compact
disc.
The
disc con-
tains
many
examples
of the
phenomena
described
in
the
text,
together
with
some
C-code
and
MIDI
files for
those
wishing
to
experiment
with
the
stimuli
themselves
using
a
computer.
The
approach
is
refreshingly
simple,
yet
well
informed
by
research
in
the
field.
The
contributions
are accessible
to the
inter-
ested
musician
having
little
prior
knowl-
edge
of acoustics
or
psychoacoustics.
None-
theless,
the
technical
level
varies
somewhat
from chapter
to
chapter,
and
a modicum
of
technical
and
mathematical
knowledge
would
certainly
be
helpful
for
understand-
ing
some
of the
material;
the
Fourier
trans-
form
equations
appearing
suddenly
in
chapter
4,
for
example, might
frighten
the
unwary.
The
contributors
vary
in
style:
98080
7/24/2019 Music Cognition Computerized sound
3/3
Book Reviews
Mathews
is
informal
and
expansive,
whereas Pierce
is formal and
concise.
The text covers
a
wide
range
of
topics,
including aspects
of
cognitive grouping
and
streaming,
haptics,
and
human-voice
acoustics, as well as the more traditional
psychophysics
fields of
pitch,
loudness,
and
space
perception.
While
many
of these
top-
ics
are treated
separately
elsewhere,
it is
rare
to
find them collected
together
in
one
place
and
explained
in
relation
to music at
an
accessible technical
level. The editor de-
serves considerable
credit, therefore,
for
drawing together
such
a wide
range
of ma-
terial
and then
distilling
the
essence
of it
for the relative novice.
This is
always
a
diffi-
cult
task,
and whereas
edited
books
by
con-
tributing
authors
nearly
always
suffer
from
some lack of thematic
continuity,
Cooke
has done
a
fine
job
in
this
regard.
There is
some
repetitiveness-Shepard
tones
appear
a
few
times,
for
example-and
some
mater-
ial
is
introduced
in an
unusual
order,
but
the overall result
is
satisfying.
Though
I found
few factual
errors,
I
question
some uses
of
terminology.
For
ex-
ample,
Mathews uses the term
intensity
somewhat
interchangeably
with sound-
pressure level in chapter 6 ( What Is
Loudness? );
he
says
that the latter
is
a
measure
of sound
intensity
(p.
73),
whereas
in
strict acoustical terms it
is
not.
( Inten-
sity
has a
specific
acoustic
meaning
that
may
result
in
the
statement
being
incorrect
in
some
circumstances.)
Some
psychophysi-
cists
might
object
to
occasional
oversimpli-
fications,
but
it
is
always
difficult to
end
up
on
the
right
side of the
boundary
between
simplification
and
oversimplification
when
writing
books at
an
introductory
level.
In
this
collection,
the efforts made to reach a
wide
readership
are
nearly always
well
in-
tentioned and well informed.
The
only un-
satisfactory
section
is
the brief
chapter
22,
Storage
and
Reproduction
of
Music,
an
odd
collection
of material that
does not
seem
to have
a
clear
purpose.
The section
on the
precedence
effect
in
spatial
hearing (pp.
92-95)
does not distin-
guish
adequately
between
the
perception
of a single source by two ears (resulting in
no more than
the
maximum binaural time
delay)
and
the
perception
of
multiple, spa-
tially separated
sources
by
two ears
(result-
ing
in a
delay dependent
on
their relative
distance
and
direction);
this is crucial to
understanding
the
difference between
stereo
sound
reproduction
on
headphones
and
on
loudspeakers,
and
to
understanding
time-intensity trading
in
auditory percep-
tion. On
page
102,
the threshold
of hear-
ing
is said to be around
10
watts
per square
meter at
3,000
Hz
for
people
with acute
hearing.
In
fact,
this is
guaranteed
to be
highly
audible,
if
not
deafening,
even to
people
with less
than
acute
hearing; per-
haps
some
factors of ten went
missing
somewhere
in
the word
processor.
On
page
179,
a
cent
is
said to be
a
thousandth
of an
octave
in
the text
and a
twelve-hundredth
of an
octave
in
the
accompanying
table.
(The
latter
is
correct.)
But
overall,
the
ma-
terial
is
highly
accurate.
The text itself, or appendix C ( Sound
Examples
on
CD ),
should
provide
consid-
erably
more information about what
is
illus-
trated
on
the
compact
disc and how
it re-
lates to
specific chapters.
For
example,
the
tracks
pertaining
to
chapter
1
are not
de-
scribed
at
all,
and
the
notes
in
appendix
C
are not sufficient for some
readers
to work
out what
is
being
demonstrated
or
why.
That
said,
the
lecturer
who has
time to
study
the
compact-disc
material and work
out its
relationship
to the book will find
it
extremely
useful for
setting up
classroom
demonstrations.
FRANCIS
RUMSEY
University
of
Surrey
981