Past CMS Seminars

Abstract Playing by ear is an essential skill in many musical styles, supporting tasks like improvisation – and even sight-reading. Whilst jazz education often emphasises ear training, more contemporarily – and perhaps paradoxically – it also features visually-notated practice books to enable a more systematic approach to...

Abstract Applause gestures – such as clapping, standing ovations, and loud vocalizations – are ubiquitous in Western concert culture. Perhaps so much so that we sometimes forget to question these strange, ritualistic displays of enthusiasm occurring in response to demonstrations of impressive skills during large social...

Abstract In the 1950s and 60s, the critic and broadcaster Hans Keller created a method of wordless music analysis. He would compose analytical interludes that wove between the movements of a particular piece or separate numbers on a concert program, which were designed to show how those diverse stretches of music hang...

Abstract Members of virtually all known societies intuitively change the quality of their interaction when addressing infants, a phenomenon known as Infant-Directed Speech (a.k.a. “motherese”, “babytalk”). Infant-Directed Speech is used beyond infancy, directed at friends, romantic partners, older adults, and people with...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...