Testing musical ability

Abstract

Both American and European investigators have long searched for factors that contribute to musical proficiency. The present article considers several interpretations of musical talent that were advanced by persons who were themselves skilled musicians. Especial emphasis is afforded to the approach of Raleigh M. Drake, an American, who obtained his PhD in Europe, but opposed the most widely utilized early 20th-century American conception of musical talent. Drake also interacted with several early and eminent American psychologists in considering the underlying issue of ‘special talents’. The scholarly contributions of Drake are assessed both in terms of their relationship to some early 20th-century conceptions of musical talent and as a prospective influence on other investigations of that ability.