Expectations
Jenny Judge, Bence Nánay
Abstract
Abstract Almost every facet of the experience of musical listening—from pitch, to rhythm, to the experience of emotion—is thought to be shaped by the meeting and thwarting of expectations. On the assumption that these components of the phenomenal character of musical experience are indeed shaped by expectations rather than some other kind of mental state (an assumption we do not challenge in this chapter), it is unclear what kind of mental states these expectations are. In particular, it is unclear what their format is, and whether they are conscious or unconscious. The chapter distinguishes between different modes of musical listening, arguing that expectations play different roles in each, and pointing to the need for increased collaboration between music psychologists and philosophers in order to arrive at a more detailed characterization of conscious musical experience and the role of expectations therein than has previously been offered.