EAR Stretch · Enhancing aesthetic reception of contemporary music through active tempo control with physiological monitoring
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-08-15 → 2023-08-14
- EU contribution
- €196,708
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
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Results in brief
Enhancing aesthetic reception of contemporary music through active tempo control with physiological monitoring
The EAR Stretch Action was about enhancing aesthetic reception of Contemporary Classical Music (CCM) using active tempo control. This action was proposed because CCM is often disliked by the general public, yet it is the lifeblood of current classical music development and contributes to the creation and evolution of culture which enlivens society. EAR Stretch aimed to enhance the reception of CCM by adding embodied interactions to newly composed music to simultaneously boost and prolong engagement with the music and to guide the formation of temporal predictions while listening to the music. The embodied interaction explored in the action was direct tapping on a bespoke conductor interface. Several objectives were enumerated to help determine whether embodied interactions could improve appreciation for Contemporary Classical Music. The specific objectives for the action were [O1] to alter aesthetic evaluations of complex CCM, [O2] establish baseline physiological responses to CCM, [O3] optimize experience through interactive tapping, and [O4] characterize the changes resulting from tapping. Through composition, interface design, and experimentation on CCM, the objectives of the action were achieved. The Fellow found that the question of engagement was highly relevant to CCM composers. Indeed, non-specialized listeners consistently reported disliking CCM samples compared to non-CCM samples. The empirical approaches used by EAR Stretch to examine physiological responses to CCM revealed that listener experiences are highly varied for CCM. Creating an intervention with tapping showed promise in the lab by altering appraisals of the music. Since CCM engagement is positively influenced by embodiment, composers of new CCM works are encouraged to consider and incorporate embodied elements into new compositions to engage the human physiological system and improve the reception of CCM.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Complex contemporary music (CM) is the crucible for musical invention that exemplifies human creativity. It forms the lifeblood of musical cultural evolution, but can be alienating to the uninitiated. In EAR Stretch, we propose to help non-specialized listeners gain a deeper appreciation for CM through embodied interaction with temporal expression of the music. When communicating music, skilled performers often help listeners make sense of the music through expressive prosodic inflections of timing and tempo. In familiar music, listeners can often recognize the pulse and tap a foot along to the expressed beat. But in CM, listeners’ internalization of the beat and subsequent embodied reactions may be limited. The embodied cognition that comes from physically engaging with time—including organization of intrinsic brain activity and changes in perception—may be lacking in CM listening, contributing to poor reception. We hypothesize that empowering listeners to physically control the temporal expression of CM will lead to improved reception of the music as measured by neural and physiological changes and aesthetic evaluation of the music. Our main objective is to determine the impact of motor-based temporal engagement with CM on the listener-performer’s reception of the music. Acoustic- and complexity-matched CM compositions will be created specially for a psychophysiological study comparing normal listening to interactive listening with tapping-based temporal control. Objective measures, neural and physiological responses, will probe the underlying causes of subjective aesthetic evaluations and elucidate the roles of arousal, attention, and entrainment in these sources. Positive impact of interactive, embodied engagement with CM will transform the CM landscape, inspire the redesign of concert experiences, promote social inclusion, and propel CM into the musical vernacular, inciting cultural and intellectual development.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS · ParisCoordinatorFrance
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union