This book deals with the complex cognitive processes involved in understanding two horizontal aspects of music perception, melody and rhythm, both separately and together. Focusing on the tonal framework for pitch material in melodies, the first section provides evidence that mere exposure to music organized in a particular way is sufficient to induce the auditory system to prepare itself to receive further input conforming to the patterns already experienced. Its chapters also offer evidence concerning elaborations of those basic schemes that come about through specialized training in music....