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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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7/24/2019 Music Cognition Computerized sound

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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