The present book proposes a systematic understanding about the conditions, mechanisms, influences, and processes evolving into a creative behavior in music, based on interdisciplinary perspectives of the cognitive sciences, In his research study, Sebastian Schmidt focuses on so-called musical extrapolations’ processes which bring the elusive quality of music into mental existence by creating extrapolations about possible future occurring events, their musical meanings, and the interrelations of their meanings. These processes, involved while music is being listened to and composed, are defined as the result of implicit and explicit problem-solving processes which are guided in tangible ways by factors of intrinsic activities and motivation, pre-disposed and experience-based structures, and environmental pressure.

Sebastian Schmidt received his doctorate at the University of Music in Karlsruhe, Germany. His research specializes in the tension field between musicology, music theory, and the cognitive sciences.