Music and Familiarity

Familiarity and Engagement with Music

This book highlights theoretical and empirical considerations about familiarity from three perspectives: listening, musicology and performance.

Part I: Listening

Addresses familiarity as it relates to listeners’ behaviour and responses to music, specifically in regulating our choice and exposure to music on a daily basis; how we get to know music through regular listening; how comfortable we feel in a Western concert environment; and music’s efficacy as a pain-reliever.

Part II: Musicology

Exposes the notion of familiarity from varied stances, including appreciation of music in our own and other cultures through ethnomusicology; exploration of the perception of sounds via music analysis; philosophical reflection on the efficiency of communication in musicology; evaluation of the impact of researchers’ musical experiences on their work; and the influence of familiarity in music education.

Part III: Performance

Focuses on the effects of familiarity in relation to different aspects of Western art and popular performance, including learning and memorizing music; examination of ‘groove’ in popular performance; exploration of the role of familiarity in shaping socio-emotional behaviour between members of an ensemble; and consideration about the effects of the unique type of familiarity gained by musicians through the act of performance itself.