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The Ohio State University

School of Music

Academic Coursework

Students at OSU who are interested in coursework in cognitive and systematic musicology have opportunities across several university departments. The School of Music regularly offers courses specifically treating music perception on a rotating basis. For more information about an individual course, feel free to browse the course web pages, linked below.

School of Music

Music 220: Cognitive Musicology

Music 693: Psychology of Music

  • Music 694: Psychology of Music. This undergraduate-level course, taught concurrently with Music 838, is an introduction to topics in the perception and cognition of music. The undergraduate and graduate versions have different workloads and different methods of evaluation.

Music 824: Computer Applications in Music Research

Music 829: Contemporary Theories of Music

Music 829 Seminar courses are critical examinations of major contemporary theoretical viewpoints, or concepts of theory construction. Topics will vary each quarter the course is offered. The courses are repeatable to a maximum of 20 credit hours.

Music 838: Seminar on Music Perception

  • Music 838: Seminar on Music Perception. A graduate-level introductory course on the psychology of music. Topics include auditory and musical perception, music cognition, creativity and aesthetic experience, listening styles and strategies, music and human emotions, and the social psychology of musical activities. In addition, the course will touch on aspects related to performance, music and the brain, and methodological issues in music research.

Music 839: Topics in Music Perception

Music 839 courses are extensive research and methodology literature reviews, focusing on cognitive and systematic musicology. Topics will vary each quarter the course is offered. The course is repeatable to a maximum of 6 credit hours.

  • Music 839(B): Twelve Approaches to Music Analysis. How to approach and critique musical works from several contrasting perspectives. Analytic approaches include functionalism, hermeneutics, memetics, idiomaticism, evolutionism, anthropology, fashion, cognitivism, commerce, socialist realism, critical theory and postmodernism.
  • Music 839(C): Musical Stylistics. The theory and analysis of musical style, including psychological, sociological, and analytic perspectives.
  • Music 839(D): Rhythm. The psychology of time as it relates to music. Topics include form, phrasing, meter, rhythm, and accent.
  • Music 839(E): Music and Emotion. An examination of modern ideas related to music and emotion, including physiological, evolutionary, cognitive, historical and cultural perspectives.
  • Music 839(F): Harmony and Voice-leading. A review of the modern research literatures related to the perception and cognition of Western harmony and voice-leading.

Music 950.01: Cognitive Ethnomusicology

  • Music 950.01: Cognitive Ethnomusicology. This seminar surveys the existing literature of cross-cultural and non-Western monocultural studies by music cognition researchers, as well as work by ethnomuiscologists, folklorists, and others that examines cognitive processes in music.

Music 950.02: Music and Expectation

  • Music 950.02: Music and Expectation. This seminar addresses the experience of musical expectation, including its phenomenological, physiological, and musical manifestations.