Understanding the Process of Musical Cognition for Maximizing the Excellence of Individual Musical Performance

The purpose of this document is to examine and bring to light relevant studies and research on musical cognition in classical music performance that can be fruitfully utilized by professional performers in order to help augment excellence in performance. Because the nature of music performance is multifaceted, it is necessary to look at the process from the vantage of different scientific fields: brain science and performance psychology. The first chapter entirely focuses on the former and discusses such topics as auditory processes, music memory, and mental imaging. This chapter also includes my own qualitative study of my brain’s response to mental piano playing and emphasizes that it is important to start learning a musical work as soon as possible. The second chapter focuses on the importance of setting up goals for a musical performance and how deliberate practice works in tandem with achieving those goals. The third chapter fully dives into the field of psychology and explores cognitive performance strategies, the state of flow, handling performance pressure, and the benefit of mindfulness meditation. The document closes with some pre-performance strategies leading up to the stage appearance.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Musical Arts

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

Rice University

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Nikiforov, Osip

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kieffer, Alexandra

• Musical cognition
• excellence in classical music performance
• individual music performance

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1911/115377

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.rice.edu:1911/115377