ABSTRACT

What is music and why study the “cognition” of it? It is often claimed that music is universal, in the sense that all known human cultures practice some form of music. It is also commonly argued that music is unique to the human species. Therefore, like language, music displays two fundamental features that identify a high level cognitive capacity (see, e.g., Fitch, 2006; Patel, 2008). But music is also a physical process that takes place at an ecological scale. Musicians’ bodies interact with instruments to create vibrations that travel through the air (see Bishop & Goebl, this volume). Once sounds reach a person’s ear, they cause activation in the peripheral auditory system and the brain. Some sound sequences lead to visceral and emotional responses and forms of coordinated movement that we recognize as uniquely musical (Iyer, 2002; Leman & Maes, 2015). Thus, music may be a cognitive capacity but it is one that is embodied to an extent that seems qualitatively different from, say, writing an essay or solving a math problem.