Leonard B. Meyer (January 12, 1918 – December 30, 2007) was a composer,

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

, and philosopher. He contributed major works in the fields of aesthetic theory in music, and of compositional

analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (3 ...

Career

Meyer studied at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he received a B.A. in Philosophy and an M.A. in Music. He continued at

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in History of Culture in 1954. As a composer, he studied under Stefan Wolpe,

Otto Luening Otto Clarence Luening (June 15, 1900 – September 2, 1996) was a German-American composer and conductor, and an early pioneer of tape music and electronic music. Luening was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to German parents, Eugene, a conduct ...

, and

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

. In 1946, he became a member of the music department at the

, in 1961 he was appointed professor of music at the University of Chicago and in 1975 professor of music and the humanities at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. He became professor emeritus at Pennsylvania in 1988. His most influential work, ''Emotion and Meaning in Music'' (1956), combined

Gestalt Theory Gestalt may refer to: Psychology * Gestalt psychology, a school of psychology * Gestalt therapy, a form of psychotherapy * Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test, an assessment of development disorders * Gestalt Practice, a practice of self-exploration ...

and theories by the

Pragmatists Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition that considers words and thought as tools and instruments for prediction, problem solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. ...

Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce ( ; September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". Educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for t ...

and John Dewey to try to explain the existence of emotion in music. Peirce had suggested that any regular response to an event developed alongside the understanding of that event's consequences, its "meaning". Dewey extended this to explain that if the response was stopped by an unexpected event, then an emotional response would occur over the event's "meaning". Meyer used this basis to form a theory about music, combining musical expectations in a specific cultural context with emotion and meaning elicited. His work went on to influence theorists both in and outside music, as well as providing a basis for cognitive psychology research into music and our responses to it. Meyer's 1967 work "Music, the Arts, and Ideas," was influential in defining the transition to postmodernism in light of new works such as

George Rochberg George Rochberg (July 5, 1918May 29, 2005) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Long a serial composer, Rochberg abandoned the practice following the death of his teenage son in 1964; he claimed this compositional techniqu ...

's ''Music for the Magic Theater'', which was premiered at the

in 1967.Leonard B. Meyer. ''Music, the Arts, and Ideas'' (

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

, 1967)'' Other major written works include ''The Rhythmic Structure of Music'' (with Grosvenor Cooper, 1960), ''Explaining Music'' (1973), and ''Style and Music: Theory, History, and Ideology'' (1989; paperback reprint ed., 1997).

References

External links

* Finding aid to th
Leonard B. Meyer papers
at th
University of Pennsylvania LibrariesGuide to the Leonard B. Meyer Papers 1941-1978
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
1918 births 2007 deaths 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers 20th-century American philosophers American male classical composers American classical composers Music psychologists Columbia College (New York) alumni University of Chicago faculty 21st-century American composers 20th-century American composers 20th-century American musicologists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians University of Chicago alumni {{US-philosopher-stub

Career

See also

References

External links