Consciousness has been described as one of the most mysterious things in the universe. Scientists, philosophers, and commentators from a whole range of disciplines can't seem to agree on what it is, generating a sizeable field of contemporary research known as consciousness studies. Following its forebear Music and Consciousness: Philosophical, Psychological and Cultural Perspectives (OUP, 2011), this volume argues that music can provide a valuable route to understanding consciousness, and also that consciousness opens up new perspectives for the study of music. It argues that consciousness extends beyond the brain, and is fundamentally related to selves engaged in the world, culture, and society. The book brings together an interdisciplinary line up of authors covering topics as wide ranging as cognitive psychology, neuroscience, psychoanalysis, philosophy and phenomenology, aesthetics, sociology, ethnography, and performance studies and musical styles from classic to rock, trance to Daoism, jazz to tabla, and deep listening to free improvisation. Music and Consciousness 2 will be fasinating reading for those studying or working in the field of musicology, those researching consciousness as well as cultural theorists, psychologists, and philosophers.

Consciousness has been described as one of the most mysterious things in the universe. Following its forebear, this volume argues that music can provide a valuable route to understanding consciousness. It argues that consciousness extends beyond the brain, and is fundamentally related to selves engaged in the world, culture, and society.

Producing a worthy successor to the original Music and Consciousness volume was always going to be a difficult task, but Music and Consciousness 2 rises admirably to the challenge. Impressively wide-ranging, yet compellingly coherent as a whole, this is a book that tackles the thorniest of problems in the most lucid of prose. Collectively, these essays make clear both the ability of music to stimulate consciousness studies and the potential for ideas about consciousness to challenge, perhaps even to transform, musicological orthodoxies.