Bibliography

Applied Music Studies

Adolphe, B. (2021). The Mind’s Ear. Oxford University Press.

  • The Mind’s Ear is a unique and fun series of games, exercises, and essays designed to inspire musical creativity and spark the imagination of musicians and music students at all levels. The music exercises in this book focus on turning up the volume of the inner voice when imagining sounds and music, and also explore the various connections of emotions to musical creativity and performance through improvisation. The non-technical approach to enlivening the musical imagination aims to increase confidence and artistic freedom for performers and open up new perspectives for music listeners.

Clinical Psychology/Psychiatry

Coebergh, J. A. F., Lauw, R. F., Bots, R., Sommer, I. E. C., & Blom, J. D. (2015). Musical hallucinations: review of treatment effects. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00814

Niyitegeka, J., Haysey, O., Abellaneda-Pérez, K. et al. (2025). Transcranial magnetic stimulation as a novel approach to effectively treat musical obsession (stuck song syndrome): a case series and a systematic review of case reports. Discov Ment Health, 5(13). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44192-025-00145-1

Taylor, S., McKay, D., Miguel, E. C., De Mathis, M. A., Andrade, C., Ahuja, N., … & Storch, E. A. (2014). Musical obsessions: A comprehensive review of neglected clinical phenomena. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 28(6), 580-589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.06.003 

  • This is the first comprehensive review of musical obsessions, based on a set of 96 case studies. Characteristics of musical obsessions are described and compared with other musical imagery experiences, and diagnosis and treatment options are discussed.

Cultural History

Kennaway, J. (2017). “Those unheard are sweeter”. Terrain, 68. https://doi.org/10.4000/terrain.16426 

Literary Studies

Hazel Smith, H. (2016). ‘Musical Imaginaries, Disability and the Real in Vikram Seth’s An Equal Music in The Contemporary Literature-Music Relationship: intermedia, voice, technology, cross-cultural exchange. (pp. 44–66).  Routledge.

  • The chapter explores the ways in which the pianist Julia uses musical imaging to counteract her deafness and heighten her creativity and originality as a performer.

Music Therapy

Radoje, M. (2014). Where Were You Born? A Music Therapy Case Study. British Journal of Music Therapy, 28(2), pp. 25–35. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/135945751402800206.

  • This case study documents work with an elderly Jewish woman living with dementia, which explores identity, memory and the holocaust. The therapist’s dream in which she experienced the woman’s ancestoral song helped inform the boundaries of the work. 

Radoje , M. and Pestell, S. (2022). Thresholds: Skype supervision and the liminal within a ‘journey of two’. Approaches an Interdisciplinary Journal of Music Therapy, [online] Vol.14(1), pp. 9–21. doi:https://doi.org/10.56883/aijmt.2022.122.

  • This report documents an online music therapy supervision process from the perspective of supervisor and supervisee and contains the supervisor’s experience of rehearsing Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in her dream. It reflects on how this compensated for the lack of music in online supervision, and the way it supported the supervisee’s work with older adults living with dementia.  

Radoje , M. and Pestell, S. (2025). Approaching a New Threshold Integrating Learning from Supervision Pre and Post Pandemic. In: C. Warner and A. Sloboda, eds., Music Therapy Supervision . London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, pp. 131–142.

  • This book chapter reflects on online clinical supervision practices in music therapy pre and post pandemic. It contains the supervisor’s experience of rehearsing Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in a dream, and reflects on the role of the creative psyche in processing difficult clinical material. 

Philosophy

Priest, E. (2022). Earworm and Event: Music, Daydreams, and Other Imaginary Refrains. Duke University Press. 

Psychology

Agnew, M. (1922). The auditory imagery of great composers. Psychological Monographs, 31, 279-287.  https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093171

Beaman, C. P., & Williams, T. I. (2013). Individual differences in mental control predict involuntary musical imagery. Musicae Scientiae, 17(4), 398-409. https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864913492530 

  • This article demonstrates that individuals who self-reported lower thought suppression capability and higher schizotypy (i.e., psychosis proneness) reported greater difficulty in dismissing unwanted musical images.  

Herbert, R. (2016[2011]). Everyday Music Listening: Absorption, Dissociation and Trancing. Routledge.

Herbert, R. (2022). Musical Daydreaming and Kinds of Consciousness. In: M. Kussner, L. Taruffi, and G. Floridou, (Eds.), Music and Mental Imagery: Towards an interdisciplinary framework for research and applications. Routledge. 

Huovinen, E., & Tuuri, K. (2019). Pleasant musical imagery: Eliciting cherished music in the second person. Music Perception, 36(3), 314–330. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2019.36.3.314 

Hyman Jr, I. E., Cutshaw, K. I., Hall, C. M., Snyders, M. E., Masters, S. A., Au, V. S., & Graham, J. M. (2015). Involuntary to intrusive: Using involuntary musical imagery to explore individual differences and the nature of intrusive thoughts. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 25(1), 14-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000075 

  • This article explores factors that make an involuntary musical imagery experience feel intrusive. Although most experiences of involuntary musical imagery were of songs people liked and were not considered intrusive, these experiences were perceived as more intrusive if the song was disliked or it required a greater cognitive load (i.e., more cognitive resources focused on the song).  

Iudici, A., Sassi, N., Quarato, M., & Neri, J. (2024). The configuration and management of “hearing music in the absence of stimuli” in professional musicians: clinical and social implications of the involuntary musical imagery. An exploratory study. Psychosis, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/17522439.2024.2373704

Müllensiefen, D., Fry, J., Jones, R., Jilka, S., Stewart, L., & Williamson, V. J. (2012). Individual differences predict patterns in spontaneous involuntary musical imagery. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 31(4), 323-338. https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2014.31.4.323 

  • This article explores individual differences in the occurrence and reactions to involuntary musical imagery. People with higher obsessive-compulsive tendencies reported more frequent involuntary musical imagery and found the experience more disturbing.  

Schaefer, R. (2022). Imagery and movement in music-based rehabilitation and music pedagogy. In: M. Kussner, L. Taruffi, and G. Floridou, (Eds.), Music and Mental Imagery. Routledge.  

  • This chapter considers the evidence and open questions regarding the facilitative effect of musical imagery in motor rehabilitation (e.g., for people with Parkinson’s disease or stroke patients) and music pedagogy (e.g., music learning and memorisation). 

Scullin, M. K., Gao, C., & Fillmore, P. (2021). Bedtime music, involuntary musical imagery, and sleep. Psychological Science, 32(7), 985-997. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621989724 

  • This article demonstrates that nighttime earworms can reduce sleep quality.  

Ulor, M., Bailes, F., & O’Connor, D. B. (2022). An investigation into the relationship between musical imagery and anxiety. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 42(1), 5-23. https://doi.org/10.1177/02762366221083234