Foundations of Musical Grammar makes a unique contribution to music theory by building on recent research in cognitive science and theoretical perspectives adopted from cognitive linguistics to present an account of the foundations of musical grammar. In presenting this account, it engages with music and the emotions, gesture, and social dance.

Lawrence M. Zbikowski is Professor of Music at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1993. His research focuses on the application of research in cognitive science to the theory and analysis of music. He is the author of Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis (2002). In 2010-11 he held a fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies and was also Fulbright Visiting Research Chair at McGill University.

• Table of Contents


• Origins:


• Music and Language in Human Cultures


• Foundations of Musical Grammar


• Musical Grammar and Music Theory


• Music and Analogy:


• Analogy


• Perceptual Symbol Systems, Embodied Knowledge, and Analogy


• Sonic Analogs and Systems of Reference


• Sonic Analogs for Dynamic Processes


• Analogy and Imagination


• Conclusion


• Music and Emotion:


• Recent Research on Emotion


• Recent Research on Music and Emotion


• Music, Emotions, and Sonic Analogs


• Conclusion


• Music and Gesture:


• Gesture and Language


• The Infrastructure of Human Communication


• Music and Movement


• Music and Gesture


• Conclusion


• Music and Dance:


• Music and Dance in the Ancien Régime


• Of Waltzes and Waltz Music


• Conclusion: Music, Social Dance, and Musical Grammar


• Music and Words:


• "Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh"


• Music, Words, and Song


• Conclusion


• Questions, Answers, Questions:


• Sonic Analogs for Dynamic Processes


• The Elements of Musical Grammar


• Prospects for a Cognitive Grammar of Music


• Works Cited


• Index of Names


• Index of Subjects