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In this commentary, we examine Schaefer's proposal to apply a hierarchical predictive processing (HPP) framework to research on music perception and music performance. As we shall see, this proposal raises the possibility of enriching this research area with new theoretical and empirical resources from further afield. In order to tap the potential of such a project, it will be important to work towards the formulation of hypotheses that are uniquely generated by the HPP framework. We attempt to contribute to this project by specifying explanatory resources within the HPP framework that are well-suited to formulating such hypotheses, by articulating several novel questions that are generated by the attempt to apply the HPP framework to musical perception and performance, and by identifying potential challenges for such a project to address. We also provide reasons to expect that the HPP framework may be especially fruitful in the context of joint (musical) action.Submitted 2014 December 11; accepted 2014 December 23. KEYWORDS: music perception, predictive coding, embodied cognition, joint actionIN an upcoming article in this special issue, Schaefer (2014) demonstrates how a hierarchical predictive processing (HPP) framework can be drawn upon to create an illuminating new perspective upon music perception and music performance. Such a perspective makes it possible to give fresh answers to old questions, to establish novel connections among apparently disparate themes and research areas, and to raise stimulating new questions for further research. Moreover, as Schaefer emphasizes, the framework is also appealing for broad theoretical reasons -in particular, it is well-positioned to integrate core insights animating embodied cognition approaches (such as the interconnectedness of cognition, action and perception), while at the same time retaining a focus on the internal models that enable music listeners and performers to anticipate and to synchronize with musical patterns, and to coordinate with others in producing music. In this brief commentary, we will home in on a few of the central themes of Schaefer's article, and attempt to identify several ways in which those themes may fruitfully be articulated further. Let's begin by recalling the basic outline of Schaefer's approach. MUSIC IN THE PREDICTIVE BRAINAt the core of the HPP framework is the idea of a hierarchy of models (for comprehensive accounts, see Hohwy 2013; Clark 2013; Friston 2012. Lower-level models predict changes in sensory input at short timescales, while higher-level models predict changes occurring over longer timescales, namely by representing more abstract causes of the changes in sensory input. Models at hierarchically different levels constrain each other through the dynamics of prediction error minimization: each model generates predictions about the representations at the immediately subordinate level; these predictions are compared with the actual state of the subordinate-level model; a prediction error is returned to the superor...

Two Brothers Were born in Budapest before the turn of the century and grew up in that city speaking Hungarian. After they had left Hungary for good, they became assimilated in Austria and Germany. Later, one of them Attila Hörbiger, went on to become one of Nazi Germany's top movie stars, as did his wife Paula Wessely. During the Austrian Second Republic, the two brothers achieved cult figure status in the theater. Fifteen years ago, as Paul Hörbiger lay close to death, he expressed the wish to speak with Attila once again, after so many years, in Hungarian, the language of their childhood. In the final hour of Paul's life, that is what te brothers did.1Regardless of the extent to which this story is, in fact, true, it can nevertheless serve as the leitmotiv for a discussion of ethnic and cultural identity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, providing an indication of the way many Austrians dealt with their ethnic origins or cultural background.

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