Includes bibliographical references.

CONTENTS:

The psychological approach to music. Frequent invalidity of common sense -- History lag -- Search for alternative hypotheses-- Limitations of psychomusical investigations -- Possibilities of research in experimental aesthetics -- Absence of absolutes -- Preview of later chapters --

Musical scales. Pythagorean scale of ancient Greece -- Scales of just intonation -- Mean-tone temperaments -- Equal temperament in world music -- Detectability of scale and note differences -- Other possible scales -- Summary --
The interval. Distinctive quality -- Vibrato and trill -- Apparent pitch of intervals -- Major-minor effect in intervals : a fiction -- Finality effects -- Interval resolutions -- Tonality -- Consonance and dissonance -- Summary --

Melody. Principles of attention and learning -- Melody and pitch level -- Melody and loudness -- Melody and timbre -- Melody and sonance -- Melody and noise -- Melody and tempo -- Melody and rhythm -- Harmony -- Summary --

Language aspects of music. Desire for communication -- Embodied meaning (grammar or syntax) -- Designative meaning -- Alleged mode and key effects -- Major and minor modes -- Color-tone linkage -- “Language of the emotions,” -- Adjective lists for classifying music -- Variables which give meaning to music -- Expression of tensions -- Music as a universal language -- Psychoanalytic symbolism -- Summary --

Nature of musical taste. Eminence -- Enjoyment -- Knowledge of composers -- Programs -- Number of recordings -- Space allocations -- Individual and group differences -- Criteria and conditioners of taste -- Summary --

The measures of musical taste. Variety of measures -- Auditory tests -- Paper- and-pencil tests -- Polling -- Orchestral programs -- Broadcasts of recordings -- Record listings -- Scholarly texts -- Boredom -- Summary --

The nature of musical abilities -- Ability : appropriate descriptive term -- Generality of ability -- Are abilities in music related to other art abilities? -- Academic intelligence and musical abilities -- Heritability of musical abilities -- Musical abilities and physical and mental structure -- Adlerian views on ability -- Jungian views on ability -- Freudian views on ability -- Imagery as a source of abilities -- Developing abilities -- Training methods : general problems -- Training methods : special problems -- Creativity -- Summary --

The measurement of musical abilities. Tests of verbal knowledge -- Tests which stress nonverbal musical skills -- Unstandardized aptitude tests -- Original Seashore Battery, Tilson-Gretsch Test for Musical Aptitude -- 1939 revision of Seashore Measures of Musical Talents -- Kwalwasser-Dykema music tests -- Kwalwasser music talent test -- Storey tests -- 1932 and 1954 Drake tests -- Wheeler battery -- Whistler-thorpe musical aptitude test -- Lundin tests -- Gaston test of musicality --Wing standardized tests of musical intelligence -- Gordon musical aptitude profile -- Taylor tests -- Bentley measures of musical abilities -- Strong vocational interest test -- Future of music aptitude tests -- Applications of music to industry and therapy -- Physiological changes -- Music and general activity -- Effects of music on achievement -- Present status of music therapy -- Epilogue --

Appendix A : the musical taste of an American elite -- Appendix B : glossary.