Forthcoming Publications
(*peer reviewed)
*J. London & R. Polak. The Cross Cultural Study of Metrical Hierarchies: A Tale of Two Authors. In Musical Structure Across Cultures and Disciplines, ed. Morwaread M. Farbood and Dane L. Harwood. Oxford University Press (2025).
Books and Other Major Publications
Performing Time: Synchrony and Temporal Flow in Music and Dance, J. London & C. Wöllner, eds. Oxford University Press (2023).
Hearing in Time, Oxford University Press (August 2004; 2nd Edition April 2012). 2nd Edition includes a new chapter on the neuroscience of rhythm, updated bibliography, and major revision of the book’s major theoretical arguments regarding metric well-formedness.
Rhythm. in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, revised edition, John Tyrrell and Stanley Sadie, eds. Vol. 21, pp. 277-309. A main entry of 22,000 words (plus bibliography), along with shorter (500 word) entries on Metre, Pulse, Tempo, and Time. Oxford University Press (2001).
Peer-Reviewed Articles and Book Chapters
A. Danielsen, R. Brøvig, K. K. Bøhler, G. S. Câmara, M. R. Haugen, E. Jacobsen, M. S. Johansson, O. Lartillot, K. Nymoen, K. A. Oddekalv, B. Sandvik, G. Sioros, and J. London. There’s more to timing than time: Investigating musical microrhythm across disciplines and cultures. Music Perception 41.3 (2024): 176-198.
What is Musical Tempo? In Performing Time: Synchrony and Temporal Flow in Music and Dance, J. London & C. Wöllner, eds. Oxford University Press (2023): 85-97.
C. Wöllner & J. London. Introduction to Performing Time. In Performing Time: Synchrony and Temporal Flow in Music and Dance, J. London & C. Wöllner, eds. Oxford University Press (2023): 1-8.
A Bevy of Biases: How Music Theory’s Methodological Problems Hinder Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Music Theory Online 28.1 (April 2022).
A. Danielsen, K. Nymoen, M.T. Langerød, Erik Jacobsen, M. Johansson, & J. London. Sounds familiar(?): Expertise with specific musical genres modulates timing perception and micro-level synchronization to auditory stimuli. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 84 (2022): 599–615.
J. London, N. Jacoby, & Rainer Polak. Theoretical and Practical Aspects of Cross-Cultural Corpus Studies: Three Case Studies from Mali. In The Oxford Handbook of Music Corpus Studies, D. Shanahan, A. Burgoyne, and I. Quinn, eds. Oxford University Press (2022). DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190945442.013.32.
J. London & R. Polak. ’Dansa’ from Mali: Tempo-metrical types in a non-isochronous meter. In Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Analysis of World Music, Lawrence Shuster, Somangshu Mukherji, & Noé Dinnerstein, eds. Routledge (2022): 143-158.
N. Jacoby, R. Polak, & J. London. Extreme Precision in Rhythmic Interaction is Enabled by Role-Optimized Sensorimotor Coupling: Analysis and Modeling of West African Drum Ensemble Music. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (2021). DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0331
Two Kinds of “Bad” Musical Performance: Musical and Moral Mistakes. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 79.3 (2021): 328-340. DOI: 10.1093/jaac/kpab034.
D. Hammerschmidt, C. Wöllner, J. London, & B. Burger. Disco Time: The Relationship Between Perceived Duration and Tempo in Music. Music & Science 4.1 (2021): 1-11.
What Should An Undergraduate Music Theory Curriculum Teach? (And, Alas, What Most of the Time We Don’t). In The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy, Leigh VanHandel, Ed. Routledge (2020): 424-432.
Metric Entrainment and the Problem(s) of Rhythm Perception. In The Aesthetics of Rhythm: Science, Philosophy, Music, Dance, Poetics, Peter Cheyne, Andy Hamilton, and Max Paddison, eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2019): 171-182.
J. London, B. Burger, M. Thompson, M. Hildreth, J. Wilson, N, Schally, and P. Toiviainen. Motown, disco, and drumming: An exploration of the relationship between beat salience, melodic structure, and perceived tempo. Music Perception 37.1 (2019): 26-41.
J. London, M. Thompson, B. Burger, M. Hildreth, and P. Toiviainen. Tapping doesn’t help: Synchronized self-motion and judgments of musical tempo. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics (2019), https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-019-01722-7.
J. London, K. Nymoen, M.T. Langerød, M. Thompson, D.L. Code, & A. Danielsen. A comparison of methods for investigating the perceptual center of musical sounds. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics 81.6 (2019): 2088-2101. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-019-01747-y.
A. Danielsen, Kristian Nymoen, E. Anderson, G. Schmidt Câmara, M. T. Langerød, M. Thompson, & J. London. Where is the beat in that note?: Effects of attack, duration and frequency on the perceived timing of musical and quasi-musical sounds. Journal of Experimenal Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 45.3 (2019): 402-418.
R. Polak, N, Jacoby, T. Fischinger, D. Goldbert, A. Holzapfel, & J. London. Rhythmic prototypes across cultures: A comparative study of tapping synchronization. Music Perception 36.1 (2018): 1-23.
D. J. Levitin, J. Grahn, & J. London. The Psychology of Music: Rhythm and Movement. Annual Review of Psychology 69.1 (2018): 13.1-13.25.
B. Burger, J. London, M. Thompson, and P. Toiviainen. Synchronization to metrical levels in music depends on low-frequency spectral components and tempo. Psychological Research (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-017-0894-2
J. J. Neiworth, J. London, M. J. Flynn, D. Rupert, O. Aldritt, & C. Hyde. Artificial Grammar Learning in Tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) In Varying Stimulus Contexts. Journal of Comparative Psychology (2017) Advance online publication.
J. London, R. Polak, & N. Jacoby. Rhythm Histograms and Musical Meter: A Corpus Study of Malian Percussion Music. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review (2017): DOI 10.3758/s13423-016-1093-7
Polak, R., Jacoby, N., & London, J. Kulturelle Diversität in der empirischen Rhythmusforschung: Drei Analysen eines Audio-Korpus von Percussion-Ensemblemusik aus Mali. Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, (2016) 13(2).
E. Carlson, B. Burger, J. London, M. R. Thompson, & P. Toiviainen. Conscientiousness and Extraversion Relate to Responsiveness to Tempo in Dance. Human Movement Science 49 (2016): 315-325.
R. Polak, J. London, & N. Jacoby. Both Isochronous and Non-Isochronous Metrical Subdivision Afford Precise and Stable Ensemble Entrainment: A Corpus Study of Malian Jembe Drumming. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience: Special Issue on the Evolution of Rhythm: Timing in Music and Speech (2016): 10:285. DOI 10.3389/fnins.2016.00285
J. London, B. Burger, M. Thompson, & P. Toiviainen. Speed on the Dance Floor: Auditory and Visual Cues for Musical Tempo. Acta Psychologica 164 (2016): 70-80.
R. Polak and J. London. Timing and Meter in Mande Drumming from Mali. Music Theory Online 20.1 (2014).
Building a Representative Corpus of Classical Music, Music Perception 31.1 (2013): 68-90.
B. Repp, J. London, & P. Keller. Systematic Distortions in Musicians’ Reproduction of Cyclic Three-Interval Rhythms. Music Perception 30.3 (2013): 291-305.
Ephemeral Media, Ephemeral Works, and Sonny Boy Williamson’s ‘Little Village.’ The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 71.1 (2013): 45-53.
B. Repp, J. London, & P. Keller. Distortions in Reproduction of Two-Interval Rhythms: When the “Attractor Ratio” Is Not Exactly 1:2. Music Perception 30.2 (2012): 205-223.
Three Things Linguists Need to Know About Rhythm and Time in Music, Empricial Musicology Review 7.1-2 (2012): http://emusicology.org/v7n1-2/contents1.html.
J. London and K. Jones. Rhythmic Refinements to the nPVI Measure: A Reanalysis of Patel & Daniele (2003a), Music Perception 29.1 (2011): 113-118.
Tactus does not equal Tempo: Some Dissociations Between Attentional Focus, Motor Behavior, and Tempo Judgment. Empirical Musicology Review 6.1 (2011):
B. Repp, J. London, & P. Keller. Perception-Production Relationships and Phase Correction in Synchronization with Two-Interval Rhythms. Psychological Research 75 (2011): 227-242.
The Philosophy of Music and Musicology. in The Routledge Companion to Philosophy and Music, Andrew Kania & Ted Gracyk, eds. Routledge (2010): 495-505.
J. London, T. Himberg, & I. Cross. The Effect of Structural and Performance Factors in the Perception of Anacruses. Music Perception 27.2 (2009): 103-120.
B. Repp, J. London, & P. Keller, Phase Correction in Sensorimotor Synchronization with Non-Isochronous Sequences. Music Perception 26.2 (2008): 171-175.
Third Party Uses of Music and Musical Pragmatics. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 66.3 (2008): 253-264.
B. Repp, J. London, & P. Keller, Production and Synchronization of Uneven Rhythms at Fast Tempi. Music Perception 23.2 (2005): 61-78.
Some Non-Isomorphisms between Pitch and Time. Journal of Music Theory 46.1&2 (2002): 127-151.
Cognitive Constraints on Metric Systems: Some Observations and Hypotheses. Music Perception 19.4 (2002): 529-550.
Rhythm in Twentieth-Century Theory. in The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory, ed. Thomas Christensen, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2002): 695-725.
A Cohenian Approach to Musical Expression. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 60.2 (2002): 182-85.
Musical Leitmotivs in Cinema and Proper Names in Language: Structural and Functional Parallels. in Music and Cinema, ed. James Buhler, Caryl Flinn, and David Neumeyer. Weslyan University Press (2000): 85-96.
Hasty’s Dichotomy, a review-essay of Rhythm as Meter, by Christopher Hasty. Music Theory Spectrum 21.2 (1999): 260-74.
J. London and R. Rodman: Musical Genre and Schenkerian Analysis. Journal of Music Theory 42.1 (1998): 101-124.
Lerdahl and Jackendoff’s ‘Strong Reduction Hypothesis’ and the Limits of Analytical Description. In Theory Only, 13.1-4 (1997): 3-29.
Hearing is Believing? A review-essay of Mark Debellis’s Music and Conceptualization. Current Musicology 60-61 (1996): 111-31.
A Psychological Addendum to ‘Takadimi: A Beat-Oriented System of Rhythm Pedagogy.’ Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 10 (1996): 25-30.
Musical and Linguistic Speech Acts. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 54.1 (1996): 49-64.
Some Examples of Complex Meters and Their Implications for Models of Metric Perception. Music Perception 13.1 (1995): 59-77.
Loud Rests and Other Strange Metric Phenomena (or, Meter as Heard). Music Theory Online 0.2 (1993). https://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.93.0.2/mto.93.0.2.london.html
Metric Ambiguity (?) in J.S. Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto: A Reply to Botelho. In Theory Only 11.7-8 (1991): 21-53.
Riepel and Absatz: Poetic and Prosaic Aspects of Phrase Structure in Eighteenth-Century Theory. Journal of Musicology 7.4 (1990): 505-519.
Reviews, Commentaries, and Other Publications
Entry on David Huron’s Sweet Anticipation and the Psychology of Music in Lexikon Schriften über Musik, Band 2: Musiktheorie von der 20. Jahrhundert, H. Grimm, M. Wald-Fuhrmann, U. Schneider, and F. Wörner, Eds. Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag (2023).
Review of the Cambridge Companion to Rhythm, ed. R. Hartenberger & R. McClelland. Music and Letters 102.2 (2021): 401–402.
Review of Philosophy of Song and Singing: An Introduction, by J. Bicknell. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 76.1 (2018): 137-140.
Analogy, Homology, and Rhythmic Phylogeny: Commentary on Adrian Poole’s “Comparing Timeline Rhythms in Pygmy and Bushmen Music.” Empirical Musicology Review 12.3-4 (2017): 194-198.
Entries on Leonard B. Meyer’s Emotion and Meaning in Music and The Rhythmic Structure of Music (with Grosvenor Cooper), and Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff’s A Generative Theory of Tonal Music, in Lexikon Schriften über Musik, Band 1: Musiktheorie von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, H. Grimm, M. Wald-Fuhrmann, U. Schneider, and F. Wörner, Eds. Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag (2017), pp. 99-101, 288-90, & 336-338.
K. Nymoen, A. Danielsen, and J.M. London, “Attack Phase Descriptor Estimation in Matlab toolboxes,” in Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Sound and Music Computing, Espoo, Finland (2017).
Review of Groove: A Phenomenology of Rhythmic Nuance, by Tiger Roholt. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 74.1 (2016): 101-104.
Editors Note, Special Issue on “Rhythm Perception and Production across Styles and Cultures,” Empirical Musicology 10.4 (2016): 1.
Musical Meter, Social Cognition, and Musical Expression: An Inquiry in Cognitive Aesthetics. In Musical Implications: Essays in Honor of Eugene Narmour, A. Rozin & L. Bernstein, eds. Hillsdale: Pendragon Press (2013): 275-294.
Review of Musical Cognition by Henkjan Honing. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind & Brain 22.1 (2012): 61-62.
Recent Neuroscientific Research in Musical Rhythm, The Journal of Rhythms (Japan) 13 (2012): 7-17.
Schemas, Not Syntax: A Reply to Patel. in Language and Music as Cognitive Systems, Rebuschat, P., Rohrmeier, M., Hawkins, J., & I. Cross, eds. Oxford University Press (2011): 242-247.
Review of Metric Manipulations in Haydn and Mozart by Danuta Mirka. Eighteenth-Century Music 8.2 (2011): 331-334.
Review of Songs in Motion: Rhythm and Meter in the German Lied by Yonatan Malin. Music Theory Online 17.2 (2011):
Commentaries on “Variant Timekeeping Patterns and Their Effects in Jazz” by Matthew Butterfield and “Rhythmic Feel as Meter: Non-Isochronous Beat Subdivision in Jembe Music from Mali” by Rainer Polak. Music Theory Online, special issue on “Drumming from Africa and Beyond” 16.4.8 (2010):
Statistical versus Musical Significance: Commentary for VanHandel. Emprical Musicology Review 4.4 (2009)
Temporal Complexity in Modern and Post-Modern Music: A Critique from Cognitive Aesthetics. in Unfolding Time: Studies in Temporality in Twentieth Century Music, Darla Crispin, ed. Collected Writings of the Orpheus Institute, vol. 9, Leuven University Press (2009): 45-68.
Review of Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis by Lawrence M. Zbikowski. Music Theory Spectrum 29.1 (2007): 115-125.
Musical Rhythm: Motion, Pace and Gesture. in Music and Gesture, ed. A. Gritten and E. King, Aldershot: Ashgate (2006): 126-141.
Recent Rhythmic Research in North American Music Theory. Zeitschriftder Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, 2, (2005).
Review of Tonal Pitch Space by Fred Lerdahl. Music Perception 20.2 (2002): 201-216.
Some Theories of Emotion in Music and Their Implications for Research in Music Psychology. Musicae Scientiae Special Issue: Current Trends in the Study of Music and Emotion (2001/2002): 23-35.
Review of Musical Performance: A Philosophical Study by Stan Godlovitch. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 59.3 (2001): 339-41.
Review of Of Mind and Music by Laird Addis and The Philosophy and Aesthetics of Music by Edward W. Lippman. Music Theory Spectrum 23.1 (2001): 108-17.
Review of Music in the Moment by Jerrold Levinson. Journal of the American Musicological Society 52.1 (1999): 156-62.
Concatenationism and Musical Form, an introduction to Music in the Moment: A Discussion. Music Perception 16.4 (1999): 463-67.
A Different Species of Counterpoint. Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 12 (1998): 105-10.
A Different Response to Killam. Music Theory Online 3.4 (1997).
Review of Shaping Time: Music, the Brain, and Performance by David Epstein. MLA Notes (June 1997): 1128-32.
Misquoting Meyer: A Response to Cochrane. Music Theory Online 1.3 (1995).
Review of The Fine Art of Repetition by Peter Kivy and Language, Music and Mind by Diana Raffman. Music Theory Spectrum 14.2 (1994): 267-75.
Report on the Second International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition. Journal of Musicology 10.4 (1992): 537-545.
Music Notation Programs in the Theory Classroom and in Research. Journal of Computers in Music Research 2 (1990): 145-170.
One Step Up–A Lesson from Popular Music. Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy 4.1 (1990): 111-14.
Phrase Structure in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Theory: An Overview. Music Research Forum 5 (1990): 13-50.
Two Kinds of Accent: Further Thoughts on Phrase Structure. Soundboard 15 (Spring 1988): 25-27.