16 september 2010

After All, We Are Not Metronomes: ‘Inconsistencies’ in the Experience of Musical Time

Does a piece of music have one and only one inherent tempo, and if so, does this seemingly well-established concept imply an absolute or ‘correct’ time framework that yields consistent tempo judgments? The literature is far from uniform on this question. In this lecture Eleni Lapidaki will present two research approaches to consistency of correct tempo judgments. The first one (e.g., Lapidaki, 2006, 2005, 2000) attempts to determine whether listeners from different age groups and levels of formal musical training, are capable of forming consistent correct tempo judgments over an extended period of time, especially when they are presented with Western-art music compositions chosen because they represent a wide range of styles, familiarity, and preference. The second approach (Lapidaki & Alexandru, 2008) examines whether there is a consistency of correct tempo judgments for the same chants of Byzantine Liturgical music by outstanding chanters (psaltes) with significant professional engagement in Greek Orthodox churches.

Eleni Lapidaki is Associate Professor of Music at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She received an M.A. in Music Psychology/Education from the School of Music, Ohio State University, and a Ph.D. in Music Psychology/Education from the School of Music, Northwestern University. Her dissertation was given the “Outstanding Dissertation Award” by the Council for Research in Music Education (CRME). Her research concerns a closer examination of the interaction between the artistic, scientific, and educational aspects of musical tempo. Eleni Lapidaki is the founder of the interdisciplinary research project C.A.L.M. (Community Action in Learning Music) that aims to a reconfiguration of music creativity, as the music department and socially, economically, culturally, and politically “excluded” Greek and Cypriot public schools are transformed into creative spaces for collective engagement.