Music in the Human Experience: An Introduction to Music Psychology, Second Edition, is geared toward music students yet incorporates other disciplines to provide an explanation for why and how we make sense of music and respond to it—cognitively, physically, and emotionally. All human societies in every corner of the globe engage in music. Taken collectively, these musical experiences are widely varied and hugely complex affairs. How did human beings come to be musical creatures? How and why do our bodies respond to music? Why do people have emotional responses to music? Music in the Human Experience seeks to understand and explain these phenomena at the core of what it means to be a human being.

New to this edition:



Expanded references and examples of non-Western musical styles
Updated literature on philosophical and spiritual issues
Brief sections on tuning systems and the acoustics of musical instruments
A section on creativity and improvisation in the discussion of musical performance
New studies in musical genetics
Greatly increased usage of explanatory figures