ABSTRACT
Until now, research in the psychology of music has rarely aimed to apprehend how a listener may grasp musical form. Nevertheless, this seems to be an urgent task if the discipline wishes to open up new perspectives. Most approaches generally present very brief stimuli of which the musical structure is very simple, being conceived so as to vary one dimension (rhythm, melody,…) while keeping the others constant. These simplifications are based on a legitimate desire to control the variables as in any experimental science. However, such an approach is unable to address the cognitive processes implied in listening to a complete piece of real music. The understanding of the perception of musical form needs to be based on appropriate musical objects, and interpretation of responses must be related to a close analysis of the musical structures employed. Thus, such approaches must be based on material taken from the existing repertoire, even if such materials provide few controllable and replicable dimensions.
