Extensive financial support from NWO and Nijmegen University and collaboration between Amsterdam University and a number of companies have made it possible to set up at the "Nijmegen Institute for Cognition and Information", the largest research institution in the world in the field of music perception and music cognition. Research has recently started at the NICI into rhythm, timing and tempo in music. What is involved is no less than a new approach to musicology, in which it is not the score but the performance which is central.
The Nijmegen project is being carried out by an international group of psychologists, musicologists and computer scientists working within the NWO's PIONEER project on Music, Mind, and Machine. The team intends to develop computer models of music and musical behaviour, both for listening and for performance. Work is already being done at the NICI on perceptual models of melodic and harmonic structures. Some of the investigation will be done in collaboration with Ohio State University (psychology), Columbia University (musicology) and the IRCAM in Paris (signal processing). Researchers from these institutes, and from a number of others, will regularly join their Nijmegen colleagues.
A number of leading companies have helped set up an experimental studio with a computer-controlled grand piano and specialised computer facilities. For a number of studies, the NICI will also be assisted by well-known musicians.
Further information:
Dr. Peter Desain or
Dr. Henkjan Honing (Nijmegen University)
T +31 24 361 2650, F +31 24 361 6066
e-mail mmm@nici.kun.nl
http://www.nici.kun.nl/mmm