Introduction: Music psychology research in the Western Balkans and Western Europe

The psychology of music is a broad research area in the range of questions and topics it addresses and the interdisciplinary research methods it employs to investigate music perception, cognition, emotion, and performance in every day and expert musical situations. It is an area of research flourishing in the Western Balkans as well as in Western Europe. This introductory chapter provides a brief historical overview of research in the Western Balkans, which has received relatively less attention and coverage in international research publications. It presents developments in music psychology in countries of former Yugoslavia-Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia. Next, a preview of the book is offered that is a compilation of research originated in the Western Balkans and Western Europe on key themes of the psychology of music: Aesthetic emotional responses to music, listening to music in various contexts, music cognition and skill development, and then, the role of motivation, personality and environmental scaffolding for musical development, followed by professional challenges and well-being of musicians. Whilst the main contribution is to develop knowledge and understanding of music psychology, a secondary contribution is to raise awareness of research in this subject area as conducted for over 40 years in the Western Balkans and promote dialogue between research conducted across Europe and hopefully beyond.