Beyond Music Psychology

Abstract

This chapter examines the evolving identity of music psychology in relation to its neighboring disciplines, particularly music theory, music education, and music therapy. Historically marked by tensions over method, epistemology, and the status of perceptibility, music psychology has negotiated its position between formal accounts of musical structure and empirical accounts of human musical experience. Drawing on debates surrounding pitch-class set theory, Schenkerian analysis, and experimental approaches to musical similarity, the chapter revisits long-standing questions concerning what listeners do hear, could hear, or should hear. A continuum model of structural relationships is proposed to clarify distinctions between subconsciously processed, perceptible but structurally incidental, and analytically posited musical patterns. Developments in embodied cognition, neurodiversity research, and applied domains—including music education, therapy, and brain rehabilitation—are considered as evidence of a broader reorientation within the field. Contemporary music psychology is presented not as a boundary discipline, but as a hub discipline, mediating between formal musical description and diverse human cognitive ecologies. In this light, research on music, health, and well-being is not peripheral but central, providing critical tests of theoretical adequacy and demonstrating how musical structure acquires meaning across varied contexts of listening, learning, and clinical practice.