Research Group

We seek to increase our understanding of how and why humans engage with music. Our research integrates industrial datasets detailing musical performance, audition, and discovery; imaging studies aimed at determining the neural correlates of music engagement; and performance studies investigating the impact of musical schemas on amateur and expert interpretations of written scores.

To listeners educated in Western classical tradition one of the most striking features of gagaku music is its foremost emphasis on timbre. Unlike Western classical orchestral works, which use functional harmony and instrumental sound fusion gagaku music employs fixed harmony and non-fusion. This original sound results both from the acoustical properties of instruments comprising the ensemble, as well as from compositional techniques used to mix them together. This research focuses on orchestration in one of the three principal bodies of gagaku music: kangen. Its aim is to assist listeners who would like to understand better how to listen to gagaku music, and composers who would like to add new works to its repertoire.

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