Renewed standard work
The "Handbuch Musikpsychologie" has already been revised several times; this time with many articles by new authors.
The Handbook of Music Psychology was first published in 1993 - as an easy-to-read overview of the work of mainly German researchers in the field. It could also have been titled a "Handbook on the Sociology of Music", as the social aspects of music-making dominated almost all the contributions, in keeping with the German tradition of thought. In its day, the volume complemented the Handbook of music psychology by the German pioneer in this field, Helga de la Motte-Haber, which in 1985 had presented rather sprawling, not very to the point concepts on the subject in a humanities style.
In 2008, the Handbook of Music Psychology revised, the subject matter structured slightly differently. The content is now divided into the chapters Music Culture and Musical Socialization, Musical Development, Music and Media, Musical Life, Fundamentals of Music Perception, Effects and Research. The volume was out of print for some time and has now been thoroughly revised once again and republished by the team of authors Andreas C. Lehmann and Reinhard Kopiez.
Although the thematic structure has been retained this time, many articles have been rewritten by new authors, while some have been revised and updated by the original authors. In the "Effects" chapter, there is a new article on "Myths and legends about the effects of music". Here, for example, widespread claims about the effects of music on animals and plants, alleged subliminal messages or increased intelligence through music are mercilessly scrutinized for their scientific content.
As befits a practice-oriented academic teaching aid, it is now also accompanied by a website on which pedagogical material is available, namely questionnaires and tasks for revision and consolidation of the material. It can be found at http://musicweb.hmtm-hannover.de/mpiea/ressourcen.html and is part of a platform for the supra-regional networking of scientists in the German-speaking world in the field of music psychology research. This "Music-Psychological Initiative for Empirical Work" (MPIEA) is, according to its own definition, "institutionally independent and provides information on current research trends, conferences and activities of scientific societies".
Handbook of Music Psychology, edited by Andreas C. Lehmann and Reinhard Kopiez, 800 p., € 49.95, Hogrefe, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 9783456855912
