ABSTRACT
Music cognition involves research on human beings who listen to, enjoy, and perform music. Given the long human history of music, as evidenced by the earliest musical instrument, made some 40,000 years ago (Higham et al., 2012), it is no surprise that questions about the human experience of music have also long been discussed. Indeed, the history of thought regarding music cognition goes back to ancient Greece. Whereas current studies on music cognition investigate how people process music in the auditory system and brain, using advanced technological tools and scientific methods, early studies depended solely on the observation of phenomena or the introspection of mental and physical states. Scientific and experimental methods have been used to examine cognition of music since their development in the 17th century (Cohen, 2010). The history of music cognition is closely related to the history of both physics and psychology, as scientific understandings of both sound and humans contribute to the field. By reviewing studies of music cognition from ancient Greece to early 20th century, this chapter will describe how research on music cognition has developed, and how its topics and methods have changed.
