COGNITIVE CONSTRAINTS?

Chapter:

CHAPTER 9 After Everything

Source:

MUSIC IN THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Author(s):

Richard Taruskin

Del Tredici's defiantly friendly identification or solidarity with the audience is reflected in the tougher, more “scientific” (or at any rate, more academic) stance adopted by Fred Lerdahl (b. 1943), a composer who has been impelled by postmodernist qualms to study structural linguistics and cognitive psychology in an effort to understand and possibly define the limits within which music must be composed if it is to be intelligible to listeners. This project is the most controversial of all, precisely because of its theoretical nature. It is not merely a description of one person's composing practice, but seeks general truths on which prescriptions can be based. Lerdahl has been accused of promoting his own music by “universalizing” it as a norm for listening. “No,” he has objected, “I do not tell people how to listen; I try to find out how they listen.”⁵¹ Not everybody wants to know this, and there are good reasons why.

Citation (MLA):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 9 After Everything." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 7 Sep. 2024. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-div1-009009.xml>.

Citation (APA):

Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 9 After Everything. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Late Twentieth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 7 Sep. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-div1-009009.xml

Citation (Chicago):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 9 After Everything." In Music in the Late Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 7 Sep. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume5/actrade-9780195384857-div1-009009.xml