Course Description
Music and language are universal forms of human communication. Both rely on sequences with organised rhythmic and melodic patterns. Despite decades of research on rhythm and melody within each domain, quantitative research comparing the structure or processing of musical and linguistic rhythm (or melody) has just begun. This course will explore the conceptual and methodological foundations for such work, and will provide in-depth discussions of a number of empirical studies of rhythm and melody at the music-language interface. The course will build upon Chapters 3 and 4 of Music, Language, and the Brain (Oxford Univ. Press, 2008), and will aim to equip students to conduct original cross-domain research.
Presenter
Dr Ani Patel
Presenter Biography
After attending the University of Virginia as a Jefferson Scholar, Aniruddh D. Patel obtained his Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University, where he studied with Edward O. Wilson. His research focuses on how the brain processes music and language, especially what the similarities and differences between the two reveal about each other and about the brain itself. Patel has served on the Executive Committee of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition and is currently the Esther J. Burnham Senior Fellow at The Neurosciences Institute. A lecture by Dr. Patel entitled Music and the Mind can be seen on YouTube.