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Copyright

Blanka Bogunović; Renee Timmers; Sanela Nikolić;

Published On

2024-06-20

Page Range

pp. 1–24

Language

  • English

Print Length

24 pages

1. Introduction

Music Psychology Research in the Western Balkans and Western Europe

Chapter of: Psychological Perspectives on Musical Experiences and Skills: Research in the Western Balkans and Western Europe(pp. 1–24)
The psychology of music is a broad research area in the range of questions and topics it addresses and the interdisciplinary research methods it employs to investigate music perception, cognition, emotion, and performance in every day and expert musical situations. It is an area of research flourishing in the Western Balkans as well as in Western Europe. This introductory chapter provides a brief historical overview of research in the Western Balkans, which has received relatively less attention and coverage in international research publications. It presents developments in music psychology in countries of former Yugoslavia―Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. Next, a preview of the book is offered that is a compilation of research originated in the Western Balkans and Western Europe on key themes of the psychology of music: Aesthetic emotional responses to music, listening to music in various contexts, music cognition and skill development, and then, the role of motivation, personality and environmental scaffolding for musical development, followed by professional challenges and well-being of musicians. Whilst the main contribution is to develop knowledge and understanding of music psychology, a secondary contribution is to raise awareness of research in this subject area as conducted for over 40 years in the Western Balkans and promote dialogue between research conducted across Europe and hopefully beyond.

Contributors

Blanka Bogunović

(author)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9235-8389
https://www.fmu.bg.ac.rs/en/

Blanka Bogunović holds a PhD in psychology and a BA in music performance (Flute). She is affiliated as a Full Professor of Psychology and Education Science at the Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade and is a guest lecturer at the Department of Psychology, University of Belgrade and Music Academy, University of Sarajevo. Her research interests are the motivation and personality of the musically gifted; specialist music education; music performance skills and expertise; and creative processes in making music. She is (co)author of five books and many articles and chapters related to her research interests. She is an ESCOM EC member, ESCOM representative for Serbia, originator of the PAM-IE Conference, and co-founder and coordinator of the Regional Network Psychology and Music (RNPaM).

Renee Timmers

(author)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1981-0834
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/music

Renee Timmers is Professor of Psychology of Music at the University of Sheffield. Her research concerns the expressive performance of music; music, emotion, and health; and multimodal and embodied experiences of music. She has co-edited two volumes published by Oxford University Press (Expressiveness in music performance; Together in music) and two by Routledge (Routledge companion to music cognition; Sound teaching). She directs the research centre ‘Music Mind Machine’ in Sheffield and is past-President of ESCOM.

Sanela Nikolić

(author)
Associate Professor at University of Arts in Belgrade
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3061-9317
https://www.fmu.bg.ac.rs/en/

Sanela Nikolić has a PhD in Theory of Arts and Media and is an Associate Professor of Applied Aesthetics at the Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade. She is the editor of the AM Journal of Art and Media Studies and was the International Association for Aesthetics Delegate-at-Large (2019–22). She is the author of the two books. Her fields of interest include avant-garde art schools and practices; applied aesthetics as a critical history of the humanities; interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in the humanities; and digital humanities. She is a member of the Regional Network Psychology and Music (RNPaM).