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Faculty of Music

 

 

The Centre for Music and Science holds regular seminars where guest speakers present recent research findings. The primary audience for these seminars is researchers in music psychology and music computing, but the seminars are open to attendees from all backgrounds. The seminars are usually held in the Centre for Music and Science’s Computer Room at the Faculty of Music, but it is also possible to attend by Zoom.

For event updates and Zoom links, we recommend subscribing to the mus-cms-news mailing list and/or its talks.cam.ac.uk listing.


Read more at: Understanding music in the age of machine learning (Harin Lee, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science)

Understanding music in the age of machine learning (Harin Lee, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science)

Tuesday, 18 March, 2025 - 17:00

We live in an exciting time where the abundance of digital media and advanced computational tools, such as machine learning, enables the study of music and culture on an unprecedented scale. What people listen to across different regions, communities, and historical periods offers valuable insights into understanding how...


Read more at: Developing digital tools to support and empower musicians (Dr Akiho Suzuki, Royal Northern College of Music)

Developing digital tools to support and empower musicians (Dr Akiho Suzuki, Royal Northern College of Music)

Tuesday, 4 March, 2025 - 14:00

Being a performing musician is rewarding but can also be challenging. Many musicians face various obstacles in their journeys including low confidence, performance anxiety, and performance-related pain, to name a few. My primary goal as a researcher is to support musicians through such challenges, and I believe that...


Read more at: Genetics of aesthetic and music reward sensitivity (Giacomo Bignardi, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics)

Genetics of aesthetic and music reward sensitivity (Giacomo Bignardi, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics)

Tuesday, 25 February, 2025 - 14:00

From tingling spines triggered by tonal patterns to tearful eyes provoked by arrangements of colours and shapes, humans can have remarkable experiences. But what makes individuals susceptible to such aesthetic responses? Here, I present evidence that genetic effects are partly responsible. Triangulating evidence from twin...


Read more at: Trajectories and Revolutions in Western Popular Melody (Madeline Hamilton, Queen Mary University of London)

Trajectories and Revolutions in Western Popular Melody (Madeline Hamilton, Queen Mary University of London)

Tuesday, 4 February, 2025 - 14:00

In the past century, the history of popular music has been analyzed from many different perspectives, with sociologists, musicologists and philosophers all offering distinct narratives characterizing the evolution of popular music. However, quantitative studies on this subject began only in the last decade and focused on...


Read more at: Decoding India’s earliest notation: quantitative approaches to a 7th-century inscription: Richard Widdess (SOAS), Marcus Pearce (QMUL), Alberto Alcala Alvarez (UNAM) and Pablo Padilla (UNAM)

Decoding India’s earliest notation: quantitative approaches to a 7th-century inscription: Richard Widdess (SOAS), Marcus Pearce (QMUL), Alberto Alcala Alvarez (UNAM) and Pablo Padilla (UNAM)

Tuesday, 3 December, 2024 - 12:00 to 13:00

Musical notation in South Asia has historically been associated with pedagogy and music theory. The earliest surviving example is a 7th-century rock inscription at Kuḍumiyāmalai, in South India, recording seven extended melodies in seven different modes. With a total of some 2,400 musical notes, this source is considerably...


Read more at: Automatic Identification of Samples in Hip-Hop Music via Deep Metric Learning and an Artificial Dataset (Huw Cheston, University of Cambridge)

Automatic Identification of Samples in Hip-Hop Music via Deep Metric Learning and an Artificial Dataset (Huw Cheston, University of Cambridge)

Tuesday, 19 November, 2024 - 17:00 to 18:00

Read more at: Acquiring music information: An incidental learning approach (Dr Claudio Iorio, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon)

Acquiring music information: An incidental learning approach (Dr Claudio Iorio, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon)

Tuesday, 5 November, 2024 - 12:00 to 13:00

This presentation discusses the potential use of an incidental learning procedure for acquiring music information. The research investigates humans’ ability to capture the relationship between two events in the environment, aiming to investigate whether or not this human ability can be applied to skills normally considered...


Read more at: Exploring overlapping cognition in music making (Dr Neta Spiro, Royal College of Music)

Exploring overlapping cognition in music making (Dr Neta Spiro, Royal College of Music)

Tuesday, 22 October, 2024 - 12:00 to 13:00

To what extent and in what ways do participants who just made music together understand what they were doing in the same way? In this talk, I’ll explore this question drawing on case studies in a range of music making contexts: improvisation on a jazz standard, free improvisation, and a classical duo. In these case studies...


Read more at: An interactive production approach to emotion perception in music - Annaliese Micallef Grimaud (Durham University)

An interactive production approach to emotion perception in music - Annaliese Micallef Grimaud (Durham University)

Thursday, 13 June, 2024 - 14:00

Multiple approaches have been used to investigate how musical cues are used to shape different emotions in music. The most prominent approach is a systematic manipulation approach (Eerola, Friberg, & Bresin, 2013; Scherer & Oshinsky, 1977), where similar musical excerpts are created by slightly varying cue levels...


Read more at: Ensemble timing: a theoretical model and practical demo of a virtual ensemble training tool - Alan Wing and Min Li (University of Birmingham)

Ensemble timing: a theoretical model and practical demo of a virtual ensemble training tool - Alan Wing and Min Li (University of Birmingham)

Tuesday, 28 May, 2024 - 12:00

Wing et al (2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2013.1125 ) proposed that phase correction underlies ensemble timing in classic quartet playing. Each player corrects the timing of their next note in proportion to the summed weighted asynchronies of their previous note onset with the note onsets of the other three players...