Eastman School of Music: Pioneering Music Cognition Research
The Eastman School of Music is at the forefront of music cognition research, fostering an environment of interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. Through various initiatives, programs, and research endeavors, Eastman provides a unique platform for exploring the cognitive aspects of music from multiple perspectives.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration
The Music Cognition Symposium, founded in 1998, exemplifies Eastman's commitment to interdisciplinary research. It began as a collaboration between faculty in the music theory department of the Eastman School, the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department of the College, and the Psychology Department of Cornell University. Recognized as a Cluster in 2005, the symposium receives funding from UCIS to further its mission.
The mission is to promote interdisciplinary study of music cognition through many lenses: music theory, linguistics, cognition, computation, brain imaging, learning and development, sound component analysis and synthesis, statistics and probability, ethnographic research, and others.
The Music Cognition Symposium
The Eastman/UR/Cornell/Buffalo Music Cognition Symposium is an informal gathering of people interested in music cognition. It meets four times a year (twice in the fall and twice in the spring) on Saturday afternoons, usually at Eastman. The symposium is open to the public, and all are welcome.
The symposium provides a platform for:
- Presentations of ongoing work by members of the community
- Discussions of readings and topics in music cognition
- Invited guests-leading researchers in music cognition from around the United States and beyond
Symposia are organized around a theme: topics have included probabilistic modeling of musical structure, musical expectation, musical development, absolute pitch, music and evolution, music and the brain, musical dysfunction (amusia), cognitive aspects of performance expression, music information retrieval, perception of music latency on the internet, and music-language connections including the pitch and rhythmic contours of speech and music.
Fostering Collaboration and Innovation
The symposium gathers as a community four times per year for an afternoon of papers and discussion around a topic, sometimes combined with a meal or reception for more informal exchange of ideas. It combines outside guest speakers with presentations by participating faculty and students. In recent years, short two- or three-day residencies by prominent researchers have been added, who meet with faculty and students and share their time between departments as appropriate, for example, giving several talks for different audiences in different departments.
These meetings have become a venue from which new collaborative research has sprung, and members have been key in proposing a new “Center for Music and Sound” as outlined in the Strategic Plan of the College.
Graduate Study in Music Cognition
Although Eastman does not offer a PhD in music cognition, students with interests in music cognition are encouraged to pursue graduate study at Eastman/UR. This can be done either through the PhD program in music theory at Eastman, or through the PhD program in Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester.
Students in Eastman’s theory PhD program have great flexibility in designing their own programs of study, and those with interests in music cognition are encouraged to pursue them. Students take graduate-level courses in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department, and BCS faculty serve on dissertation committees.
Course Offerings
The theory department’s graduate-level course offerings include two courses in music cognition:
- “Music and the Mind” (MTH 260): a broad survey course
- MTH 560: a research-focused proseminar
The theory department’s Music Research Laboratory has a dedicated room for music perception/cognition experiments.
Brain & Cognitive Sciences Department
The Brain & Cognitive Sciences department welcomes graduate and undergraduate students with interests in music, especially those wishing to explore connections between music and other areas of cognitive science, such as language, perception, and learning and development. At the graduate level, the department provides training in behavioral, computational, and neural approaches to the study of perception, cognition, and language.
Students with interests in music cognition are encouraged to take courses at Eastman and work with Eastman faculty. Dr. Piazza’s research studies the cognitive neuroscience of auditory and music perception and communication across the lifespan.
Undergraduate Opportunities
The undergraduate curriculum in the School of Arts & Sciences and Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences requires that students choose a major in one of three areas-Humanities, Natural Sciences, or Social Sciences-and complete a “cluster” in each of the other two disciplines. It is now possible to complete a cluster in any of these three areas that includes coursework in music cognition.
Students may also minor in music cognition as a Natural Science.
Student Research
Here are some examples of student research in the Brain & Cognitive Sciences B.A.:
- Matt Chiu & Noah Kahrs (2021)
- Braden Maxwell, Jo Fritzinger, and Laurel Carney (2021)
- Ethan Lustig and Ivan Tan (2020)
- David Temperley (2019)
- Lissa Reed, Braden Maxwell, & David Temperley (2019)
- Betsy Marvin, Hannah Dick, Charles Babb, & Anne Luebke (2019)
- David Temperley (2017)
- Adam Waller & David Temperley (2016)
- David Temperley, Amanda Yung, & Celeste Kidd (2016)
- James Sullivan and Elizabeth West Marvin (2015)
- Elizabeth West Marvin, Joseph vanderStel, & Joseph Siu (2015)
- Joseph VanderStel (2013)
- Daphne Tan (2013)
- Joseph Siu (2013)
- David Temperley & Trevor de Clercq (2013)
- David Temperley & Daphne Tan (2013)
- Andrew Aziz (2011)
- Jenine Brown (2011)
- Keturah Bixby, Joyce McDonough, & Betsy Marvin (2011)
- Katie Cox (2011)
- Robert Hasegawa (2011)
- Elizabeth Marvin & Elissa Newport (2011)
- Alice Asako Matsumoto & Caroline Marcum (2011)
- Andrew Snow & Heather Chan (2011)
- Daphne Tan (2011)
- David Temperley (2011)
- David Temperley and Trevor de Clercq (2011)
- David Temperley & Daphne Tan (2011)
Additional student research includes:
- 2021. Ethan Lustig.
- 2021. Adam Waller.
- 2016. Andrew Flowers.
- 2013. “The Rhythm of the Polyphonic Conductus: a computational model and its implications”. Daphne Tan.
- 2012. Kelly Francis.
- 2011. Christopher Bartlette.
- 2007. Panayotis Mavromatis.
- 2005. Gavin P. Chuck.
- 2004. Scott Spiegelberg.
- 2002. “The Psychoacoustics of Musical Articulation.”
- 2002. Nancy Rogers.
- 2000.
Eastman School of Music: A Hub for Musical Excellence
Eastman’s graduate programs in composition, musicology, music education, and music theory rank consistently in the top tier in national surveys. Faculty members have served in prominent leadership positions within the national organizations of their respective disciplines and have won major publication awards, including the Philip Brett, Alfred Einstein, and Noah Greenberg Awards from the AMS and Emerging Scholar Awards from the SMT, among many others.
In addition to their creative work as scholars and composers, Eastman faculty are committed pedagogues, educating and mentoring talented students who develop into musical leaders of the future.
Research Areas
Eastman supports research in various areas:
- COMPOSITION: For composers, research involves the composition of new music for performance in academic and professional circles and venues. The Eastman Audio Research Studio [EARS] is a platform for research, experimentation, and realization of new music and sound art.
- MUSICOLOGY.
- MUSIC TEACHING AND LEARNING: The faculty’s research is based on the premise that all individuals have musical potential, and each person deserves access to a comprehensive music education.
- THEORY.