Alexander Rozin

Alexander Rozin
  • Professor
  • Department: Music Theory, History, & Composition
  • Institution: West Chester University of Pennsylvania
  • Email: ARozin@wcupa.edu

Education

  • Ph.D. (Music Theory), University of Pennsylvania, 2000
  • B.A. (Physics), University of California at Berkeley, 1991

Research Interests

music theoryexperimental psychologymusical expertisemusic and cuisineperception and cognitionmusic theory pedagogymusic of Brahmsmusic of jazzhistory of music theoryNorth Indian classical music

Opportunities

Work Study Positions Available: No

Grant Funded Positions Available: No

Course-Credit Research Opportunities Available: No

Volunteer Research Positions Available: No

Biography

Alexander “Lex” Rozin is the music theorist of the department, having received his Ph. D. in music theory from the University of Pennsylvania where he studied with Eugene Narmour and Chris Hasty. His research combines the methods of music theory and analysis with the tools of experimental psychology. In particular, he has explored how music elicits emotional responses, how performance variables influence listeners' perceptions, how musical expertise influences cognitive and affective responses to music, musical and affective memory, and the relationship between music and cuisine, amongst other topics. Along with music perception and cognition, his focus is music theory pedagogy, having co-authored a textbook in the field that emphasizes stylistic diversity and represents a significant shift away from traditional approaches. He also has serious interest in the music of Brahms, jazz, the history of music theory, and North Indian classical music. He has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Towson University, and Swarthmore College.

Contact Information

Phone: 610-436-2910

List of Publications

  • Rozin, P. and A. Rozin (2018). Advancing understanding of the aesthetics of temporal sequences by combining some principles and practices in music and cuisine with psychology. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1-20. Rozin, P., L. Guillot, K. Fincher, A. Rozin, and E. Tsukayama (2013). Glad to be sad, and other examples of benign masochism. Judgment and Decision Making 8/4, 439-447. Bernstein, L. & A. Rozin (eds.). Musical Implications: Essays in Honor of Eugene Narmour (2013, Pendragon Press). Rozin, A. “The Analysis and Cognition of Basic Textural Structures” in Bernstein, L. & A.Rozin (eds.)
  • Musical Implications: Essays in Honor of Euguene Narmour (2013, Pendragon Press). “Informative Parallels Between Music and Food: Creation, Experience, and Memory of Concerts and Meals,” Culinary Institute of America, Poughkeepsie, NY, March 2013. “Large-Scale Form in Music Perception and Cuisine,” Composition Seminar, West Chester University, November 2012. “Why Do We Stop Liking New Music Once We Turn 30?” Composition Seminar, West Chester University, November 2011. “Music Perception and Music Theory Pedagogy: A Curriculum Based on the Principles of the Implication-Realization Model,” NEMCOG, April, 2011 (with Mark Rimple). “The Analysis and Cognition of Basic Textural Structures,” NEMCOG, October 23, 2010. “The Analysis and Cognition of Basic Textural Structures,” 11th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, Seattle, August 2010. “Expanding Music Theory Pedagogy: Towards Perception and Diversity,” West Chester University Research Day, April 2009 (with Mark Rimple). “Experienced Tension in Response to Atonal ‘Melodies’,” Meeting of the Society of Music Perception and Cognition, Indianapolis, August 2009. Rozin, A. & P. Rozin (2008). Feelings and the enjoyment of music. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Rozin, A. (2008). He was the very model of a modern musicologist. Music Perception, 25/5, 477-491. “Musical Emotion,” University of Pennsylvania, November 2007. “An Introduction to the Psychology of Music,” Composition Seminar, West Chester University, November 2007. “The Memory of Emotional Sequences in Concerts of Classical and Popular Music,” Meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, Montreal, August 2007. Rozin, P., A. Rozin, B. Appel, and C. Wachtel (2006). Documenting and explaining the common AAB pattern in music and humor: Establishing and breaking expectations. Emotion, 6/3, 349-355. “Emotion and Meaning in Music Fifty Years Later: Delayed Realization of Some of Leonard Meyer’s Implications,” 9th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition, Bologna, Italy, August 2006. “Why Some of the Songs On Your Favorite Albums Aren’t Very Good,” West Chester University Research Day, March 30, 2006. Rozin, A., P. Rozin, and E. Goldberg (2004). The feeling of music past: How listeners remember musical affect. Music Perception, 22/1, 15-39. “An Introduction to the Psychology of Music,” West Chester University Psychology Club, April 16, 2004. “Does Listening to Music Make You Smarter?: Evaluating the Mozart (and Metallica!) Effect,” Pi Mu Alpha Lecture Series, Fall 2003. "A Music Perception Manifesto: How Music Analysis Can Capture Perceived Musical Structure," National Meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, Las Vegas, NV, June, 2003. “How Listeners Remember Musical Affect,” National Meeting of the American Psychological Society, Toronto, June, 2001. “Is Listening to Music Like Getting a Colonoscopy? Remembering Musical Affect,” National Meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, Toronto, November, 2000. “Building A Model of Musical Affect From the Bottom Up,” National Meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, Northwestern University, August 1999. “The Weighting Game: A New Model of Music-Affective Intensity,” Penn-Cornell- Princeton-Columbia Graduate Exchange, Columbia University, February 1999. “Representing Stylistic Mapping in the Implication-Realization Model: Brahms’s Thematic Development,” National Meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, University of California, Berkeley, June 1995.