The Influence of Time and Timbre on Cross-Cultural Music Perception

The world’s music is created with a variety of sounds and structures. For example, traditional Japanese music and classical Western music use different key signatures, rhythms, and instruments. This has suggested to music cognition researchers that different musical traditions might require unique mental processes and even distinct brain areas. Indeed, research by Professor Rie Matsunaga and her colleagues has shown that Japanese listeners detect the key signatures of Western and Japanese melodies with different brain areas and cognitive processes. This has suggested to us that detecting other elements of Japanese and Western music, such as timing (rhythm) and timbre (instrumentation), might require similar differences in psychological processing. The research we propose here will test this possibility through a series of experiments that will determine whether the rhythms and timbres of Japanese and Western music are processed by different brain areas and cognitive processes. Such experiments will inform not only our understanding of the the world’s musical arts, but will also tell us more about how this music is processed in the brain.

Faculty Supervisor:

Stephen McAdams

Student:

Partner:

Kanagawa University

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

University:

McGill University

Program:

Globalink Research Award