Carl Stumpf - Tone Psychology: Volume I: The Sensation of Successive Single Tones

Carl Stumpf (18481936) was a German philosopher and psychologist and a visionary and important academic. During his lifetime, he ranked among the most prominent scientists of his time. Stumpfs intention, as evident in his book, Tone Psychology, was to investigate the phenomenon of tone sensation in order to understand the general psychic functions and processes underlying the perception of sound and music. It could be argued that modern music psychology has lost or perhaps ignored the epistemological basis that Carl Stumpf developed in his Tone Psychology. To gain a confident psychological basis, the relevance of Stumpfs deliberations on music psychology cannot be overestimated. Analyses of the essence of tones, complex tones and sounds are fundamental topics for general psychology and epistemology. By the end of this two-volume work, Stumpf had established an epistemology of hearing.

The subject of Volume I is the sensation of successive single tones. Stumpf demonstrates that analysis leads to the realisation of a plurality (is there only one tone or are there several tones?), which is then followed by a comparison: an increase may be observed (one tone is higher than the other) or a similarity may be realised (both tones have the same pitch or the same loudness). With almost mathematical stringency, Stumpf developed a topology of tones. Volume II deals with the sensation of two simultaneous tones (musical intervals). The books are stimulating, rewarding and provocative and will appeal to music psychologists, music theorists, general psychologists, philosophers, epistemologists and neuroscientists.

Carl Stumpf (18481936) was a German philosopher and psychologist.

Series Editor

John Sloboda

In 2010 The European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM) established a project to bring new, broader readerships to historically important European monographs previously only published in a language (or languages) other than English. The main criterion for inclusion in the series is that the work concerned should have made a major (and historically significant) contribution to theory or method for analysing and understanding the structure, organisation, and underlying psychological mechanisms of music, and should not have been previously published in high quality English translation.

Tone Psychology: Volume I

The Sensation of Successive Single Tones

Carl Stumpf, translated by Robin D. Rollinger

For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/music/series/CESSM

Translation commissioned and funded by the ESCOM Irne Delige Translation Fund, a fund of the King Baudouin Foundation, Belgium.

Translated by Robin D. Rollinger

First published 2020

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Carl Stumpf

The right of Carl Stumpf to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-1-4724-3523-1 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-55087-9 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

For my dear parents