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SUMMARY:Cognitive research and South Asian music - Professor Richard Widde
 ss - SOAS South Asia Institute
DTSTART:20150210T170000Z
DTEND:20150210T190000Z
UID:TALK57562@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:David Greatrex
DESCRIPTION:I will report briefly on three ongoing lines of investigation 
 that seek to relate aspects of South Asian music with specific human cogni
 tive capacities: \n\n\n(1) The capacity to learn a melodic grammar (that o
 f raga) incidentally\, that is\, without intending to do so. This has been
  demonstrated empirically using Western subjects unfamiliar with Indian cl
 assical music\, and musical stimuli derived from ecologically valid perfor
 mance materials. \n\n\n(2) The capacity to structure music recursively\, t
 hat is\, by embedding one structure inside another\, especially another of
  the same kind (as in linguistic syntax). This can be demonstrated with re
 ference to alap\, the improvised exposition of a raga\, and is also observ
 able in visual and other domains of South Asian culture.\n\n\n(3) The capa
 city to organize musical performance according to schemas that also underl
 ie other aspects of culture and experience. This can be inferred from perf
 ormance schemas of Newar temple singing in the Kathmandu Valley\, Nepal.\n
 \n\n(1) and (2) are the subjects of ongoing projects in collaboration with
  Dr Martin Rohrmeier (Technical University\, Dresden) and Dharambir Singh.
  (3) is based on my ethnographic and analytical study of dapha in Bhaktapu
 r (R. Widdess: Dapha: sacred singing in a South Asian city\, Asghate 2013)
 . 
LOCATION:Lecture Room 1\, Faculty of Music\, 11 West Road\, CB3 9DP
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