Body and Force in Music

What Kim presents in her "meta-psychology" of music is a story, circa 1900, in which music theorists and physiologists, economists and educators, physicists and philosophers create a whole new way of thinking about music – a musical thought that starts from the body and takes metaphors such as motion and force seriously. In this wide-ranging book, Kim shows how these discussions have not lost any of their relevance but strongly resonate with current musical concerns.

Alexander Rehding, Fanny Peabody Professor of Music, Department of Music, Harvard University

Youn Kim is one of the very few contemporary musicologists whose work is of true value to both historians of music as well as historians and philosophers of science. Her new book, Body and Force in Music: Metaphoric Constructions in Music Psychology captures the emergence of a complex new way of imagining music in the course of the rise of the new sciences of biology and human nature by psychologists and philosophers (Darwin, Spencer, William James) in the course of the late 19th century. Concepts such as "soul," "force," and "body" become at this time simultaneously scientific "facts" and powerful metaphors that shape an understanding of music as phenomenon and relocate the question of its social and cultural meanings. Youn Kim’s book offers a rethinking not only of what music means today but how it came to have such meanings. Any one engaged with discussions about music as a "scientific" or "social" phenomenon, ethnomusicologists and those engaged in post-colonial studies of music; any one captured by the idea that our musical minds both pre-determined by genetics and yet shaped by our environment, will benefit from reading Youn Kim’s seminal work.

Sander L. Gilman, Distinguished professor of the liberal arts and sciences and professor of psychiatry (emeritus), Emory University;

Author of "I Know Who Caused COVID-19": Pandemics and Xenophobia. (2021)

What exactly is music? Scientists have long wrestled with this question, often resorting to metaphors about movement, force, and the human body. In this well researched volume Professor Kim surveys the historical landscape that eventually becomes the modern field of music psychology. Along the way we are introduced to a singing sloth, a mechanical voice, and all manner of graphical representations as writers from previous centuries wrestle with the fleeting experience of music. The author brings together a chorus of fascinating voices––performers, critics, scientists, historians, dancers, neurologists—all grappling, as we still do today, with the mysteries of music.

Robert O. Gjerdingen, Professor Emeritus of Music Theory and Cognition, Northwestern University

What Kim presents in her "meta-psychology" of music is a story, circa 1900, in which music theorists and physiologists, economists and educators, physicists and philosophers create a whole new way of thinking about music—a musical thought that starts from the body and takes metaphors such as motion and force seriously. In this wide-ranging book, Kim shows how these discussions have not lost any of their relevance but strongly resonate with current musical concerns.

Alexander Rehding, Fanny Peabody Professor of Music, Department of Music, Harvard University

Youn Kim is one of the very few contemporary musicologists whose work is of true value to both historians of music as well as historians and philosophers of science. Her new book, Body and Force in Music: Metaphoric Constructions in Music Psychologycaptures the emergence of a complex new way of imagining music in the course of the rise of the new sciences of biology and human nature by psychologists and philosophers (Darwin, Spencer, William James) in the course of the late 19th century. Concepts such as "soul," "force," and "body" become at this time simultaneously scientific "facts" and powerful metaphors that shape an understanding of music as phenomenon and relocate the question of its social and cultural meanings. Youn Kim’s book offers a rethinking not only of what music means today but how it came to have such meanings. Any one engaged with discussions about music as a "scientific" or "social" phenomenon, ethnomusicologists and those engaged in post-colonial studies of music; any one captured by the idea that our musical minds both pre-determined by genetics and yet shaped by our environment, will benefit from reading Youn Kim’s seminal work.

Sander L. Gilman,Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychiatry (Emeritus), Emory University; Author of "I Know Who Caused COVID-19": Pandemics and Xenophobia (2021)

What exactly is music? Scientists have long wrestled with this question, often resorting to metaphors about movement, force, and the human body. In this well researched volume Professor Kim surveys the historical landscape that eventually becomes the modern field of music psychology. Along the way we are introduced to a singing sloth, a mechanical voice, and all manner of graphical representations as writers from previous centuries wrestle with the fleeting experience of music. The author brings together a chorus of fascinating voices—performers, critics, scientists, historians, dancers, neurologists—all grappling, as we still do today, with the mysteries of music.

Robert O. Gjerdingen, Professor Emeritus of Music Theory and Cognition, Northwestern University