• Skip to Content
  • Skip to Main Navigation
  • Skip to Search

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington IU Bloomington

Open Search
  • About
    • Leadership
      • From the Desk of the Dean
        • Progress on Prevention
        • Message from the Dean
    • Student Life
    • Inclusion, Equity, Diversity & Justice
      • Report a Bias Incident
      • Diversity Events
      • Best Practices
      • Diversity and Equity Committee
      • Past Statements
    • Health & Wellness
      • OWAHI
      • OWAHI Resources
      • Health & Wellness Committee
      • Selected Courses
      • Financial Wellness
      • Wellness Coaching
    • Cook Music Library
      • Menahem Pressler: A century of legend
      • Bernstein Collection
      • Policy on Rights of Ownership and Use of Recordings
      • Recording Request Form
    • Offices and Services
      • Communications
        • Mailing Lists
        • Communications Request Forms
      • Recording Services
    • Staff Directory
    • Facilities
      • Performance Halls
      • Learning Facilities
    • Strategic Planning
    • Accreditation
    • Hire a Musician
    • Work at Jacobs
    • Marketplace
  • Admissions
    • How to Apply
    • Auditions/Interviews & Prescreening
      • Audition Weekend Info
        • JSOM Audition Weekend Check-In
    • Financial Aid & Costs
      • Policies
    • Visit IU & Bloomington
    • Admissions Inquiry
    • College Fairs
    • Special Scholarship Opportunities
    • Dual Degrees
    • After Admission
  • Degrees & Programs
    • Areas of Study
    • Ensembles
    • Non-Major Offerings
      • Music Minor Application
    • Advising
      • Keyboard Proficiency Requirements
      • Graduate & Diploma Policies
    • Centers & Institutes
    • Entrepreneurship & Careers
      • Certificate in Entrepreneurship
      • Project Jumpstart
  • Faculty
    • Faculty Directory
    • Faculty Bookshelf
  • Alumni
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events & Performances
      • Past Events
    • Graduation
    • Jacobs Productions
    • LIVE@jacobs
    • The Main
    • Directions and Parking
  • Giving
    • Giving Opportunities
    • Ways to Give
      • 60th Anniversary
      • Areas to Support
    • Your Impact
  • Contact
  • Opera & Ballet
  • Jacobs Academy

Jacobs School of Music

  • Home
  • About
    • Leadership
    • Student Life
    • Inclusion, Equity, Diversity & Justice
    • Health & Wellness
    • Cook Music Library
    • Offices and Services
    • Staff Directory
    • Facilities
    • Strategic Planning
    • Accreditation
    • Hire a Musician
    • Work at Jacobs
    • Marketplace
  • Admissions
    • How to Apply
    • Auditions/Interviews & Prescreening
    • Financial Aid & Costs
    • Visit IU & Bloomington
    • Admissions Inquiry
    • College Fairs
    • Special Scholarship Opportunities
    • Dual Degrees
    • After Admission
  • Degrees & Programs
    • Areas of Study
    • Ensembles
    • Non-Major Offerings
    • Advising
    • Centers & Institutes
    • Entrepreneurship & Careers
  • Faculty
    • Faculty Directory
    • Faculty Bookshelf
  • Alumni
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Events & Performances
    • Graduation
    • Jacobs Productions
    • LIVE@jacobs
    • The Main
    • Directions and Parking
  • Giving
    • Giving Opportunities
    • Ways to Give
    • Your Impact
  • Contact
  • Search
  • Opera & Ballet
  • Jacobs Academy
  • Home
  • Faculty
  • Faculty Bookshelf
  • Visualizing Music

Visualizing Music

By: Eric Isaacson

To feel the emotional force of music, we experience it aurally. But how can we convey musical understanding visually?

Visualizing Music explores the art of communicating about music through images. Drawing on principles from the fields of vision science and information visualization, Eric Isaacson describes how graphical images can help us understand music. By explaining the history of music visualizations through the lens of human perception and cognition, Isaacson offers a guide to understanding what makes musical images effective or ineffective and provides readers with extensive principles and strategies to create excellent images of their own. Illustrated with over 300 diagrams from both historical and modern sources, including examples and theories from Western art music, world music, and jazz, folk, and popular music, Visualizing Music explores the decisions made around image creation.

Together with an extensive online supplement and dozens of redrawings that show the impact of effective techniques, Visualizing Music is a captivating guide to thinking differently about design that will help music scholars better understand the power of musical images, thereby shifting the ephemeral to material.

IU Press

View purchasing options

Jacobs School of Music social media channels

  • Intranet for Students, Faculty, and Staff
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn

Indiana University

Accessibility | College Scorecard | Privacy Notice | Copyright © 2025 The Trustees of Indiana University