This books breaks new ground in presenting the first scientific exploration on the topic of musical prodigies. It brings together research from a range of disciplines, including psychology, neurobiology, and genetics, to provide a thorough exploration of prodigious talent

Section One: Theoretical Frameworks, 1 Francoys Gagne & Gary E. McPherson: Music prodigies within the DMGT/EMTD perspective, 2 David Henry Feldman: Two Roads Diverged in the Music Wood: A Co-incidence Approach to the Lives and Careers of Nyiregyhazi and Menuhin, 3 Robert Faulkner & Jane W. Davidson: Syzygies, social worlds and exceptional achievement in music, 4 Miriam Anna Mosing and Fredrik Ullen: Genetic influences on musical giftedness, talent and practice, 5 Reinhard Kopiez & Andreas C. Lehmann: Musicological Reports on Early 20th-Century Musical Prodigies: The Beginnings of an Objective Assessment, 6 Dean Keith Simonton: Early and Late Bloomers among 120 Classical Composers: Were the Greatest Geniuses also Prodigies?, 7 Barry Cooper: The Wunderkind Composer, Section Two: Aspects of Development, 8 Larry Vandervert: Working Memory in Musical Prodigies: A 10, 000 Year-Old Story, One Million Years in the Making, 9 Larry Vandervert: The collaboration of the cerebellum (rapid encoding) and the cerebral cortex: A Case Analysis of Tiffany Poon, 10 Larisa V. Shavinina: On the Cognitive-Developmental Theory of the Child Prodigy Phenomenon, 11 Rena Subotnik, Linda Jarvin, Andrew Thomas, & Geesoo Maie Lee: Transitioning Musical Abilities into Expertise and Beyond: The Role of Psychosocial Skills in Developing Prodigious Talent, 12 Jeanne Bamberger: Growing-Up Prodigies: The Midlife Crisis, 13 Andrew J. Martin: Musical Prodigies and Motivation, 14 Aine MacNamara, Dave Collins, & Patricia Holmes: Musical Prodigies: Does Talent Need Trauma?, 15 Lena Quinto, Paolo Ammirante, Michael H. Connors, and William Forde Thompson: Prodigies of Music Composition: Cognitive Abilities and Developmental Antecedents, 16 Thenille Braun Janzen, William Forde Thompson, & Paolo Ammirante: Development of timing skills, 17 Simone Dalla Bella, Jakub Sowi?ski, Nicolas Farrugia, and Magdalena Berkowska: Igor: a case study of a child drummer prodigy, 18 Jae Yup Jung & Paul Evans: The career decisions of musical prodigies, 19 Freya de Mink & Gary E. McPherson: Musical Prodigies Within the Virtual Stage of YouTube, 20 Solange Glasser: Synaesthesia and Child Prodigiousness: The Case of Olivier Messiaen, 21 Adam Ockelford: The development and nurture of prodigious musical talent in blind children with autism and learning difficulties: identifying and educating potential musical savants, 22 Laurent Mottron & Lucie Bouvet: Veridical mapping in the development of autistic musical prodigies, Section Three: Individual Examples, 23 Rachel Cowgill: Proofs of genius: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the construction of musical prodigies in early Georgian London, 24 Simon P. Keefe: Mozart the Child Performer-Composer: New Musical-Biographical Perspectives on the Early Years to 1766, 25 Sian Derry: Beethoven: An Understated Prodigy, 26 R. Larry Todd: The 'Second Mozart': Mendelssohn and Precocity Revisited, 27 Anna E. Kijas: Teresa Carreno: Such gifts are of God, and ought not to be prostituted for mere gain, 28 Dan Bendrups: A folk song prodigy? Considering the exceptional musical childhood of Chilean folklorist Margot Loyola, 29 S. Timothy Maloney: Glenn Gould: Conventional Prodigy, Unconventional Professional, 30 Danick Trottier: Andre Mathieu (1929-1968): The Emblematic Case of the Young Canadian Mozart, 31 Alex W. Rodriguez: Jack Teagarden's Southwestern Sound: A Musical Prodigy and His Field, 32 Gabriel Solis: Little Stevie Wonder: Motown Musical Prodigy, 33 Jacqueline Warwick: You can't win, child, but you can't get out of the game: Michael Jackson's transition from child star to superstar., 34 Mike Heffley: Jason Becker: Musicality Begets Musicianship in a Heavy Metal Guitar Prodigy, 35 Tyler Bickford: Justin Bieber, YouTube, and New Media Celebrity: The Tween Prodigy at Home and Online