This is our backup site. Click here to visit our main site at MellenPress.com
Fiske, Harold E.
Dr. Harold Fiske holds B.M. and M.M degrees from Boston University and a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut. He is the author of three books on music cognition (published by Mellen), and over fifty published papers, book chapters, and reviews. He has served as Chair of the ISME Research Commission, and has presented over 75 papers at research conferences. He joined the Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario in 1974 where he continues to teach courses in music psychology and philosophy and advise graduate student research.
2005 0-7734-6192-2The book explores a series of neural network models designed to represent music listening processes. Backpropagation, Adaptive Resonance Theory, and other connectionist procedures are used to model melodic perception, interpretation, and expression. The history and theory of neural network research is presented, and development and construction of the music models is discussed in sufficient detail to interest both specialists and non-specialists. A series of listening experiments demonstrates the models’ validity. The book considers how neural network models can be used to bridge bottom-up and top-down theories of music perception and cognition in addressing questions such as musical imagery, memory and learning, lateral thinking, context and cultural effects on musical understanding. The outcome is a comprehensive theory of musical thinking and understanding. The book is intended for music researchers and graduate students in the fields of music psychology, artificial intelligence and neural network theory, music theory, music cognitive philosophy, and music education.
1990 0-88946-473-1
A philosophical and empirical study of the music-listening process and what we already know about it. Six axioms develop the theory that music is a meta-language, a semantically closed tonal-rhythmic system through which meaning results from realized self-referenced inter-pattern relationships. It is shown that this meta-language represents the functioning of an independent multi-staged module, and that the description of this module applies to all accepted music (theory) systems. Will be of interest to music aestheticians, theorists, psychomusicologists, music educators, music education researchers, and music therapists.
1993 0-7734-9334-4
This study develops a theory about the interaction between music cognition and affective response. The theory demonstrates how musical thinking, knowledge, and decision-making result in qualitative musical behavior. It reports new findings about the cognitive representation of musical structures, imagery as an auditory-phenomenological descriptor of music, aesthetic response as an outcome of specific cognitive decisions, and the value of music in cross-cultural human development. Each of seven essays identifies a problem in music psychology that is critical to an explanation of the musical process, reviews the literature relevant to that problem, and, through systematic philosophical analysis, offers a solution. This book will interest music philosophers, and psychologists working in the areas of cognition, aesthetics, music theory, music education, and music therapy.
1996 0-7734-9771-4
This is an historical and philosophical analysis of eight major theories that concern music perception, cognition, and meaning. These theories, developed in the 20th century, are among those most often cited by the music psychology and philosophy research literature. Included are Carl Seashore's theory of musical inheritance, Information theory, Mary Louise Serafine's theory of music as thought, music cognition versus speech cognition, neural network and Connectionist theory, and the musical meaning and communication theories of Susanne Langer, Leonard Meyer, and Peter Kivy. The links between these theories and other experimental and philosophical research are considered as well. The final chapter offers a list of 21 principles of music cognition and aesthetic communication derived from the analysis of each theory. The analyses reflect the recent historical development of music psychology and philosophy research, and serve as a useful guide for future investigations.
2008 0-7734-5168-4
This work amalgamates music psychology, philosophy, and sociology into a fresh view of the musical learning experience. It demonstrates that explanations of musical understanding are not found in analyzing musical activities per se but rather in examining underlying cognitive activities: principles of melodic and rhythmic construction, language-like template tuning protocols, sensory awareness and quality assessment, and the effects of cultures on neural network formation.