Much of the research in the Centre for Music and Science is focused on the relationships between music and speech: how can they be conceptualised as different, yet related, channels for human communication? One of the most important similarities is that both speech and music employ real-time processes that help establish and maintain a mutual recognition of interacting participants as social beings. In certain situations, this may involve attempts to capture the attention of, and to enhance a sense of affiliation with, those with whom we are interacting. Rhythm appears to underpin both these processes, and evidence to support this view comes from empirical work undertaken in the CMS by graduate student Sarah Knight. Her experimental results suggest that speakers adjust their speech towards the more “musical” – that is, more overtly regular – end of the rhythmic spectrum when they particularly need to grab listeners’ attention and/or encourage those listeners to judge them positively – for example, during persuasive oratory. These results fit with idea that speech and music are closely connected, and that they are likely to have co-evolved as complementary components of the human communicative toolkit (for more details see the University of Cambridge’s Research Horizons magazine).
