Eric Clarke is Professor of Music at the University of Sheffield. He received BA and MA degrees in music from the University of Sussex, and a PhD in psychology from the University of Exeter. He has published on topics including the psychology of performance, the perception and production of rhythm, the semiotics of music, the relationship between language and music, and music and ecological theory. For ten years he was a member of the improvisingstring quartet The Lapis String Quartet.

This challenging, impressive study implies new ways of thinking about music and listening. No other books cover the same territory.