Talk:Leonard B. Meyer

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[edit] Regarding the last paragraph

"A simple piece where the audience's expectation for each musical statement was met provided no interest, and no real information to engage the listener. However, a piece where the expectations of the audience were never met voided the probability aspect of the listening experience, and so disengaged the audience." So, the listener never becomes engaged in the music? I don't understand.

I don't think that paragraph is written very clearly, but I can try to explain what it means. In Meyer's book "Emotion and Meaning in Music", he proposes that the emotional response to music comes from both the anticipation of and fulfilment of the listener's expectations. The emotion comes from being led to expect something, and then manipulating those expectations, making the listener wait for it. That's a rough idea of the concept, does it clarify things? That part of the article should probably be rewritten. - Rainwarrior 04:12, 23 May 2007 (UTC)